



















THE 


LIFE 


OF 


THOMAS PAINE, 


AUTHOR OF 


“COMMON SENSE,” “RIGHTS OF MAN,” “AGE OF REASON,” 

ETC., ETC. 


WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY 


OBSERVATIONS ON HIS WRITINGS. 


$ 

BY G^V ALE, 

EDITOR OF “THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. 


BOSTON: 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT TIIE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR OFFICE, 

BY J. P. MEN BUM. 

1 87 6 . 


CONTENTS 


Preface, containing: earlier Histories, 
Cheetham’s Trial s Carver’s Letter, 

&c.p. 3-14 

PART I 

Mr Paine, his birth, parentage, early life, 

education, religious impressions .... 16 

Employment, arnves in London, goes to 

sea. > . 17 

Leaves the sea, his School-master’s in¬ 
fluence, settles at Sandwich, marries, 
removes to Margate, becomes Excise¬ 
man, is dismissed, Petitions. 18 

Goes to London, becomes a Teacher, 
and Student in Natural Philosophy, 

Astronomy, and Mathematics. 19 

His style, and attainments.20,21 

Re-appointed in the Excise, resides at 
Lewes, second marriage, social hab¬ 
its, early Poetry, his Letter on Excise 
Officers, habits, and reputation ... .22, 23 
Becomes tobacconist, suffers in busi¬ 
ness, separates from his Wife, her 
property, after-conduct, religion, sin¬ 
gular connubial fact. 24, 25 

His early Thoughts on Government, re¬ 
visits London, obtains Franklin’s 
friendship, leaves England for Amer¬ 
ica, Reflections. 26-28 

PART II. X 

Mr. Paine, his arrival in America, brings v 
letters from Franklin, edits “ Penn¬ 
sylvania Magazine,” his poetry, song 
on Wolfe, object in coming to Amer¬ 
ica, connexion with Dr. Rush, his 
literary attainments, a beautiful ex¬ 
tract . 39-33 

Publishes “ Common Sense,” its ef¬ 
fects, gives up copy-right, enters the 

army as a volunteer.50-53 

Publishes the “ Crisis,” ail extract, 
Cheetham’s account of its influence 
on the Trenton affair, 2d “Crisis,” 
to Lord Howe, 3d “ Crisis,” appoint¬ 
ed Secretary to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs. 54, 55 

4th “ Crisis,” on the loss of the battle 
at Brandywine, salutary effects of 
this Crisis, 5th “ Crisis” (to Lord 
Howe), on predatory war, distribu¬ 
tion of forged bills. 56 

6th “ Crisis,” to Carlisle, Clinton, &e., 
in ridicule of “ rightful sovereign,” 
after the treaty with Fiance, 7th 
“ Crisis,” to the People of England, 
resigns his office of Secretary .... 58, 59 
Becomes Clerk to the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, 8th “ Crisis,” address 
to the People of England, 9th “ Cri¬ 
sis,” after the loss of Charleston .. 60, 61 
Crisis Extraordinary” on taxes, pro¬ 
poses in a letter to Mr. Isard of South 
Carolina, a loan from France, accom¬ 
panies Col. Laurens to France, effects 
a loan, intention to visit England, 
advice of Gen. Greene, obtains the 
despatches of an English packet, a 
French fleet, gives five hundred dol¬ 
lars in relief of the Treasury .... 62-64 
10th “ Crisis” after the capture of Corn¬ 
wallis, a supernumerary “ Crisis” to 
Sir Guy Carleton, letter to Lord Shel¬ 
burne, 12th “ Crisis,” publication of 
“ Public Good,” his disinterestedness 
and pecuniary loss from Virginia .. 65-67 
Ilia .etler to Abbe R.ivual. Washing- 


•3 ^f\j 3 , 

.\jy a n b 

ton’s regard for Mr. Paine’s service? 58, 69 
Receives $3,000 from Congress, re¬ 
ceives 5001. from Pennsylvania, re¬ 
ceives from New York an estate at 
Rochelle, publishes “ Dissertation on 
Government, do. on “ Paper Money,” 
commences a private subscription, 
when public failed.71-71 

PART III. 

Mr. Paine, his departure from America, 
object, reception in France, iron 
bridge, visits Sir Joseph Banks, his 
mother, publishes “ Prospects on the 
Rubicon,” connexion with Society of 

Arts, their meanness. 75,73 

Assisted by Mr. Whiteside, leaves Eng¬ 
land for France, account of French 

Revolution. 77 

Replies to Burke, secretly opposed by 
Government, “ Rights of Man,” .. 94-98 
Goes to France, danger, reply to Abbe 
Syeyes, returns to Loudon, address at 
Thatched House, 2d part of “ Rights 
of Man,” Government offers to bnbe 

or purchase the printer.97-100 

Prosecuted, his letter, addresses against 
“ Rights of Man” by corporations, 

&c., “ Address to the Address¬ 
ers”. 101-106 

Elected to the French Convention, 
treatment at Dover and Calais, elect¬ 
ed for Abbeville, Beauvais, and Ver¬ 
sailles, his trial and conviction, re 

tailers prosecuted. 107-109 

A list of his puhiisheis prosecuted, so¬ 
cial life in London, opposition to *,he 
death of the King of France, hated 
by Marat and others, attacked by 

Capt. Grimstoue. 110-113 

His life in Paris, expelled the Conven¬ 
tion by a motion to expel foreigners, 
is imprisoned by a motion to imprison 
persons born m England, publishes 
“Age of Reason,” Americans in Paris 
seek his release, coldness of Wash¬ 
ington, and Morris the American 
Minister in France, writes 2d part of 
“Age of Reason,” his letter to Mon¬ 
roe, and reply. 114 ii8 

Released from prison, visits Mf. Mon¬ 
roe, miraculous escape, invited to re¬ 
turn to the Convention, publishes 
“Age of Reason,” its principles, 
Llandalf’s reply, the publisher Wil¬ 
liams prosecuted. 119 125 

His speech on Boissy d’Anglas’ consti¬ 
tution, adopted, convention termi¬ 
nated, Mr. Paine not re-elected, 2d 
part of “Age of Reason,” “ D.sscr- 
. tation on Government,” “ Agrarian 
Justice,” English Finances, his let¬ 
ter to Washington, his letter to a lady 
at New York, and attachment to 

America. 126, 121 

“A Theophilanthropist,” his letter on 
the 18th Fructidor, to Camille Jor¬ 
dan, Mr. Paine at one. time unpopu¬ 
lar in France, resides in Bonne¬ 
ville’s family, resolves on leaving 

France. 128-130 

His moral and social Character in 

France. 131-134 

His treatment by historians and book¬ 
sellers, his iron bridge, poetry, his 
attempt to return, and final return to 
America. 136-140 






























! 


I 


PREFACE. 


There are four lives of Mr. Thomas Paine now extant \ but 
none in print in the United States. Francis Oldys, or a person 
under that name, wrote a life of Mr. Paine about the year 
1792, while Mr. Paine was yet alive, and active in the prog¬ 
ress of the French Revolution. This life was written in fact 
by George Chalmers, one of the clerks of the Board of Plant¬ 
ation, at the instigation of Lord Hawksbury, afterward Lord 
Liverpool, for which he gave him five hundred pounds. Mr. 
Chalmers acknowledged the authorship of this book. This 
we have never seen j it has sunk into oblivion ; it partly served 
the political purpose for which it was written, but* the enemies 
of Mr. Paine and the Rights of Man were too prudent to en¬ 
dorse its acknowledged calumnies, and identify themselves 
with this transaction. 

Immediately after the death of Paine, Cheetham wrote his 
life in 1809. Cheetham was an Englishman and had been a 
zealous disciple of Paine, both in politics and religion ; but 
he had retrogaded in politics, and deserted the principles of 
the democratic party j Paine had attacked him with his accus¬ 
tomed force, and thus converted him into a personal enemy. 
Mr. Cheetham at this time edited a party paper (the Citizen) 
in New York, and while he was yet smarting under the lash 
of Paine, heated by party politics, and fired with revenge, 
like the ass in the fable, he kicked, not indeed the dying, but 
the dead lio . 1 , by writing the life of his adversary. Cheet* 



4 


PREFACE. 


ham, however, connected this with a scheme of interest; for, 
becoming the deadly enemy of democracy, and losing the 
support of his old friends (for he was turned out of the Tam¬ 
many society), he was preparing to go to Europe, and enlist 
in support of the tory government in England, by publishing 
a paper opposed to Cobbett, who had just come out in opposi¬ 
tion to the government; and Cheetham apparently meant this 
life of Paine as a passport to the British treasury favor : at 
least, such was the opinion of the intimate friend of Cheet¬ 
ham, Mr. Charles Christian, who gave this relation to Mr. 
John Fellows and others, whom we have seen, and from whom 
we have learned this fact. This life of Paine, the only one 
published in the United States, abounds in calumnies, and af¬ 
ter a lapse of some years caused the production of two other 
lives, one by Clio Rickman, the intimate friend of Mr. Paine 
for many years, and another by Mr. W. T. Sherwin, both pub¬ 
lished in London. Mr. Rickman was an excellent, amiable 
man, of the quaker profession, with whom Mr. Paine lived 
both in England and France, at different periods, and with 
whom he kept up a constant correspondence. The life of 
Paine, however, by Mr. Rickman, is sullied by a little vanity; 
he is to Paine, what Boswell was to Johnson. We are indebt¬ 
ed to Mr. Rickman for many facts on which we can rely; but 
with the best intentions he was not the man to do Mr. Paine 
justice. 

The best life of Paine before published, is that of Sherwin ; 
and from this life we shall freely extract. But Mr. Sherwin 
is incorrect on some points, and his whole work is so exclu¬ 
sively adapted to a London reader, that it is deteriorated 
for this market. Mr. Paine changed public opinion in favor 
of a republic at the time of the Revolution; his earliest en¬ 
ergies were in favor of American liberty; it was here that his 
mighty powers were first developed, and here his political 
principles took root. His success in the United States brought 
him out in Europe ; and his “ Rights of Man,” which shook the 
corrupt government of England, and endeared him to all 
France and every friend of liberty, was based upon his “ Com¬ 
mon Sense,” which had concentrated public opinion in favor 
of a declaration of independence. And when the buds of 


PREFACE. 


5 


liberty were nipped in England' and France, to this country 
Mr. Paine retired, as his proper home, at the invitation of 
Jefferson, then the president, and avowedly the greatest and 
best statesman this country has known. And here, too, he 
died in peace, in a good old age, the firm and consistent friend 
of liberty. To this country, then, in a special manner belongs 
his life ; here are his most numerous friends and personal ac¬ 
quaintances ; it is here that the calumnies propagated by 
Cheetham may be effectually rebutted, by living witnesses 
yet in the sound possession of their faculties; and it is here 
that Paine can be identified with every crisis in the glorious 
Revolution which gave birth to this nation, which has set the 
glorious example of republicanism, whose principles are now 
progressing in the world. The want of a life thus identifying 
Mr. Paine with the glories of our Revolution, is our apology 
for our present undertaking. 

The life of Paine by Cheetham has had a considerable 
influence ; for though his calumnies are palpable, and his mo¬ 
tives in publishing them apparent, he has given to them a de¬ 
gree of credibility by the free use of names, which the reader 
necessarily concludes are respectable references for the facts 
he has stated ; fortunately, however, a public trial, in which 
he was convicted of libel, showed the shallow foundation on 
which his slander rested, and our acquaintance with some of 
the persons to whom he refers, enables us flatly to contradict 
these statements, and to denounce him on the very authority 
of many of his references as the utterer of gross falsehoods, 
to which he attached without their consent their names. 
With much ingenuity he relates a slander as a matter of fact, 
as if there were abundance of evidence, and apparently refers 
to the only source of this slander, as if this formed but a 
small part of his proof. Thus he declared Madame Bonne¬ 
ville to be the mistress of T. Paine, as if that fact were no¬ 
torious; he produces no proof, but inserts a letter from Mr. 
W. Carver, written in anger, after a quarrel, in which such an 
insinuation is made, merely from the fact of that lady bringing 
her family to America, and leaving her husband in France. 
Madame Bonneville prosecuted Cheetham for this assertion, 
and Cheetham on that trial produced no other evidence than 


/ 


6 PREFACE. 

Carver and his angry letter. His counsel admitted the false 
ness of the charge, and pleaded only the insinuation in Car 
ver’s letter as justifying Cheetham as an historian to repeat 
the slander. 

This trial excited great interest at the time. The press 
generally reported it $ and the brief facts with the counsel’s 
speech have been preserved in a pamphlet form, from which 
pamphlet we shall give the introduction and a few extracts as 
pertinent to our object: — 

[the introduction.] 

“ One James Cheetham, a man who had once been an editor 
of a republican paper in New York, had abandoned his past 
professions, and become the advocate of the British party in 
America. Among other means to serve them, he undertook 
to write the life of Thomas Paine, author of ‘ Common Sense,’ 

‘ Rights of Man,’ &c., &c. In this biography, he introduced 
the name of Madame Bonneville, a virtuous and respectable 
lady, the wife of N. Bonneville of Paris. He charged her 
with prostitution; said Paine was her paramour, and that one 
of her sons had the features, countenance, and temper of 
Thomas Paine. For this atrocious attack on the character of 
Madame Bonneville, and outrage to her feelings, Mr. Cheet¬ 
ham was indicted for a libel, and on the 19th of June, 1810, 
his trial was brought on. 

The counsel for the libeller took two grounds of defence : 

1st. That the facts charged were true. 

2d. That the defendant was an historian, and, as such, had 
a right to publish what he had heard and believed, though it 
reflected on an innocent person. 

The first position was, after a contemptible effort to support 
it, abandoned even by the libeller’s counsel. They were 
ashamed of it themselves. Several ladies of the first distinc¬ 
tion, whose daughters had been intrusted to the care of Mad¬ 
ame Bonneville, to learn the French language, appeared in 
court, and attested to the unblemished character of this much- 
injured female. 

The counsel for the libeller than had recourse to their last 
ground, and strenuously maintained the principle they had 
laid down. They perhaps felt confidence in the court, as it 
had, in an early stage of the trial, intimated an opinion favor¬ 
able to the new and extravagant pretension, which set up a 
libeller under the title of an historian. Nor was this confi¬ 
dence misplaced. Mr. Recorder Hoffman directed the jury, 
that if they should be of opinion, that Mr. Cheetham had 


PREFACE. 


7 


been informed of what he wrote, and be.ieved it, he was justi¬ 
fied, and that, though Madame Bonneville was an innocent 
woman, they were authorized to acquit Mr. Cheetham. He 
also read the letter of a man, by the name of Carver, as a 
justification of the libeller, though his counsel had not men¬ 
tioned it. 

This monstrous doctrine, which leads to the prostration of 
private reputation, if not to the dissolution of civil society, 
was promptly rejected by the jury, although composed of men 
of different political sentiments, who returned in a few min¬ 
utes a verdict of guilty. 

The court, however, when the libeller came up the next 
day to receive his sentence, highly commended the book 
which contained the libellous publication, declared that it 
tended to serve the cause of religion, and imposed no other 
punishment on the libeller, than the payment of two hundred 
and fifty dollars, with a direction that the costs be taken out 
of it. 

It is fit to remark, lest foreigners who are unacquainted 
with our political condition, should receive erroneous impres¬ 
sions, that Mr. Recorder Hoffman does not belong to what is 
called the republican party in America, but has been elevated 
to office by men in hostility to it, who obtained a temporary 
ascendency in the councils of the state.” 

EXTRACTS FROM MR. SAMPSON’S SPEECH ON THE TRIAL OF MR. JAMES 

CHEETHAM, FOR A LIBEL ON MRS. MARGARET BONNEVILLE, IN HIS 

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

“In every other grief than that which this historian has in¬ 
flicted on her the innocent find comfort ; for innocence is in 
all other wrongs, against all other strokes of man’s injustice 
or oppression, a sevenfold shield. Not so where woman’s 
honor is assailed ; suspicion there is worse than death itself. 
It is that for which alone the innocent wife of Cesar was repu¬ 
diated. The man who dares attack it is of all other criminals 
the greatest. If he be not a traitor it is for this alone that he 
is worse. For many a man has suffered as a traitor, whom 
after-aofes have revered and honored. But never was he who 
set his cloven-hoof upon a woman’s honor worthy the name 
of man. 

[Here the defendant rose and claimed the protection of the 
court, not so much with a desire to prevent the range of the 
ingenious counsel, as to prevent the utterance of personalities, 
that it would not be prudent perhaps to repeat out of court.. 

While the defendant was addressing the court, the counsel 
calmly advanced, and taking a pinch of snuff, modestly ob¬ 
served, that what he was doing was in court, and what was to 
be done out of court was not to be talked of here. Then 


PREFACE. 


pointing 1 to the defendant, and casting a significant look upon 
him, he proceeded.] 

This unrighteous man has, by this very * movement of his 
choler, justified all that I can ever say. If he complains of 
personalities — he who is hardened in every gross abuse — 
he who lives reviling and reviled ; who might construct him¬ 
self a monument, with no other materials hut those records 
to which he is a party, and in which he stands enrolled as an 
offender — if he cannot sit still to hear his accusation, but 
calls for the protection of the court against a counsel, whose 
duty it is to make his crimes appear — how does she deserve 
protection whom he has driven to the sad necessity of coming 
here to vindicate her honor from those personalities which he 
has lavished on her 1 Did not his opening counsel say before 
you that ‘he could make the color fade upon this lady’s 
cheek, and wish that she might be in court to hear him 1 re¬ 
gret that her own son was not here to testify against her V 
Was not this monstrous personality! And when it is consid¬ 
ered that before this very cause drew near its close, the other 
counsel of this same defendant rose and told you, that ‘ they 
admitted her character was spotless, and for that reason that 
no reproach was cast upon it, desire you to acquit their inno¬ 
cent client, who is a mere historian, who never could have 
malice, who was more ready to rectify his errors, than others 
to observe him.’ 

But it is well, and I am glad that I was interrupted ; for the 
very evil genius that waits upon his life has here, for once, 
worked to an honest end. For while my voice was almost 
choked with crowding truths, struggling for utterance, and 
while the swell of honest indignation rose even to suffoca- 
tion, he came forward and pointed my attention to that sub¬ 
ject which first, deserved rebuke. * 

I had said, that in the catalogue of crimes none could be 
found more base than his. Not treason, for the reasons I 
have given. Not murder ; for he who murders life, murders 
all sorrow with it; but he has doomed this lady to days of 
sorrow, and to lingering death. The pirate meets his foe, or 
seeks his prey, where death and danger stare him in the face ; 
and when he falls before the sword of justice, some sympathy 
may mingle with his shame, and men regret that one so brave 
in manly enterprise should fall so ignominiously. But here is 
an attack upon a woman far from her husband’s side, from 
friends and home, whose infant sons are yet too tender to 
avenge their mother’s wrongs. The forger who counterfeits 
some instrument to cheat you of your money, for that crime 
spins out his wretched days in hard captivity, in infamy and 
labor: will you compare his crime with that of one who, by 
his fabricated histories, pilfers from helpless woman the only 


PREFACE. 


& 


precious jewel which she prizes — her more than life, her all 
— her spotless honor 1 That which the robber or the thief 
purloins may be retrieved, or may be spared ; but not the worth 
of twenty thousand beings such as the libeller, were he worth 
twenty thousand times as much as ever he will be, reform 
how he may, would pay the twenty thousandth part of that 
which he has taken. 

It is argued that everything should be intended in favor of 
this defendant, who has written so godly a work against the 
prince of deists, and for the holy gospel. I am sorry to hear 
such arguments advanced ; they go almost to burlesque reli¬ 
gion itself. He a man of God ! He write for the love of 
God! His book a godly book! a vile, obscene, and filthy 
compilation, which bears throughout the character of rancor¬ 
ous malice, and tramples upon every Christian charity. Libel 
an innocent woman, lie and calumniate, for the sake of 
Christianity ! If this be the only godly deed this man has 
done, I pray to Heaven to be more merciful to him than he 
has been to Mrs. Bonneville, and that for this very work of 
godliness he be not damned. 

If you be Christian jurors punish him ; for be assured of 
this, that twenty Paines, were twenty such just now upon this 
earth, could not conjointly do more harm to Christianity by 
their most violent efforts, than this man by defending it would 
do. If any one of wavering faith should hear that the best 
vindication of God’s word was this most libellous and scan¬ 
dalous work, he never would be a Christian from that hour. 
Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom 
of heaven, but least of all he that makes the blessed name of 
God a cloak for malice and iniquity. He may be like those 
priests of whom we read in history, who, with the holy cross 
in the one hand and the bloody sabre in the other, commit 
atrocities at which nature shudders. 

Where did he learn, that the God of mercy took delight in 
human sacrifices, and that, to do him honor, a woman’s heart 
should palpitate upon a bloody altar 1 Has he ever read the 
word of God 1 or, this heavenly historian , does he know one 
letter of the gospel history 1 If he does, he is as blunt and 
dull in understanding, as he is dead .to sensibility arid delica¬ 
cy. When a woman was brought before the author of the 
Christian religion, taken in the very fact of adultery, what 
did he say 1 He left behind him a specimen of tenderness 
ever memorable and divine. ‘Let him,’ he said to.the fanat 
ical and malignant rabble, ‘ let him who is innocent cast the 
first stone.’ 

And if this Christian historian had ever known or felt the 
benignant spirit of holy inspiration, would he not be sensible 
that he was not innocent 1 If he be innocent, then are tigers 
gentle 


2 


10 


PREFACE. 


There was a monastery where deadly crimes were expiated 
called La Trappe : when sinners entered it they made a ter' 
rible vow of everlasting silence, and from that awful moment 
never uttered a word, and daily with their nails dug their own 
graves. When the midnight bell tolled them to prayer, they 
left their solitary cells, and moved with noiseless step through 
gloomy cloirters and whispering aisles, with downcast look, 
turning their rosaries, but never spoke. Such is the peni¬ 
tence, such the everlasting silence that would become the 
ruthless slanderer of woman’s honor. But he who acts the 
bully and the bravo, and calls himself the champion of high 
Heaven, what words can paint the horror he inspires ! Then 
let us leave him. 

My duty calls me now to recapitulate the testimony of all 
his witnesses. The first and principal is Mr. Carver. He, 
with uplifted hand, affirmed, by the ever-living God, the truth 
of what he testified — and what was that 1 His letter tells 
us all: that he and Paine had a dispute for money ; and in 
their correspondence you may find the crimes and baseness 
they reciprocally urged against each other. Mr. Carver, 
whose vulgar scurrilous letter makes the chief buttress of 
this man’s defence, the more to spite his adversaries, flings 
out some calumny against the lady. Carver himself admits, 
that when she got a sight of it she threatened to prosecute 
him for that very letter. Yet on no better ground has this 
audacious libeller defamed her reputation. 

From the same source springs the infernal hint that little 
Thomas Bonneville had the countenance and features of 
Thomas Paine. In his little nose no doubt the historian could 
discern, by learned inspection, the germes of future blossoms, 
and gems that in due course of nature should come to this 
world’s light. 

Carver gives evidence of what he heard from Paine of Mrs. 
Bonneville, which he himself retailed to Cheetham; and 
Cheetham, rather than such sublime history should not shine 
forth to save poor sinners’ souls, becomes his historian for the 
love of God, and gives them to the world as history. This is 
the history of this' historian and his history ! 

I pushed him (Carver) farther, and he stated that he and his 
wife had often gone to Mr. Purdy’s on the farm' to visit Mrs. 
Bonneville. Then it was, that seeing the toils in which his 
honesty and decency had fallen, he tapered off by saying he 
never had seen the slightest indication of any meretricious 
or illicit commerce between Paine and Mrs. Bonneville ; that 
they never were alone together, and that all the three chil¬ 
dren, the little godson Thomas and all, were alike the objects 
of Paine’s care. 

Here ends the black conspiracy and conjuration for the 
love of God. And now the sickened soul revives, and a 


PREFACE. 


II 


bright scene appears: A group of matrons led by those hands 
which holy wedlock had joined to theirs for ever — heads of 
families, beloved, distinguished, full of respect and honor ; 
in form so bright, in innocence so lovely ; so pure in unsus¬ 
pected truth, so proud in conscious worth and dignity ; who 
never till that hour had crossed the threshold of a court of 
justice, or been where discord reigns: whose lips had never 
uttered other oaths than those which bound them by the wil¬ 
ling ties of constancy and love ; who, when the seraph-voice 
of piety called them down, first glided from their spheres up¬ 
on the wings of heaven-born charity, and having done their 
mission, disappeared. But, oh ! it was a holy sacrament when 
wife and husband twined their oaths together with such so¬ 
lemnity, such beaming truth, as when they made before the 
altar of their God that vow so full at once of joy and awe that 
linked their future destiny together and made them ever one. 
They would have told you of this lady’s sorrows and her res¬ 
ignation, of her spotless conduct, of her merit; how they in¬ 
trusted to her care and tutelage the jewels of their souls, the 
children of their hearts ; with what reproachless truth ; what 
anxious duty she answered to the trust; had not the rules of 
evidence and technical formalities of law cut short their story. 
Her general character was all they were allowed to testify. 
Their words were few, but like so many messages of grace 
or high commands from heaven. 

The wives of your own bosoms are not more pure than 
this injured lady is proved, nay, more, admitted now to be. 
If they were stigmatized by an historian , what would you say 
of him, that he was innocent or guilty 1 

You have heard the witnesses for Mrs. Bonneville, and you 
may judge if this historian had inquired of them, instead of 
grubbing filth from every dunghill, how bright a name she 
would have deserved, who has been, nevertheless, doomed by 
this terrible man to misery. 

If he had begged access to any of those high distinguished 
persons under whose roof she lived, whose children she had 
taught; of Mr. Emmett, who oppresses no one, but protects 
the innocent; or of Mr. Fulton, who knew her and her hus¬ 
band in their own country ; if he had asked of Mr. Jarvis—• 
that man of keen sagacity, of observation, with knowledge of 
mankind and of all the parties; if he had been satisfied with 
Mr. Hitt’s wwd, rather than that of ‘pious nurses and kind 
attending doctors,’ and reverend teachers, who had disputes 
and lawsuits; he would have known what all but his 
mutinous genius now concedes. I have no cause of private 
malice against him, but quite the contrary. When he had 
any spark of character, he praised me more than ever I could 
merit, and I could not but thank him. When he had nothing 
good to give but his abuse, without offence or change in me, 


12 


PREFACE. 


he gave me that with equal liberality, and I thanked him. If I 
could ask a favor of him now, it would be to abuse me more 
and more, and never let his malice go to the length of prais¬ 
ing me : for although my friends who know me well might 
not despise me, yet in this community where I am little 
known, and still almost a stranger, I may not have formed suf¬ 
ficient character to stand against his praise, nor he entitled 
to so much indulgence that it should be believed that I could 
have his praise, and yet be honest.” 

This same Cheetbam, the libeller of Madame Bonneville, 
and through her of Paine’s memory, is the author of othbr 
calumnies on Paine. It is by him that the public have been 
informed that Paine was drunken and dirty in his person ; and 
so industriously and faithfully have the clergy preached and 
circulated these calumnies, that we shall scarcely be believed 
in contradicting them on the very best evidences, his com¬ 
panions now alive, and in some cases the very men whom 
Cheetham impudently names as sources of his information. 
Thus. Mr. Jarvis, the celebrated painter, with whom Mr. 
Paine lived, informs us distinctly that Mr. Paine was neither 
dirty in his habits nor drunken : nay, he good-humoredly ad¬ 
ded that he always drank a great deal more than ever Paine 
did. Mr. John Fellows lived in the same house with Mr. 
Paine, above a twelvemonth, and was his intimate friend for 
many years after his return to this country, and never saw 
him but once even elevated with liquor, and then he had been 
to a dinner-party. We know more than twenty persons who 
were more or less acquainted with Mr. Paine, and not one of 
whom ever saw him in liquor. His habit appears to have 
been to take one glass of rum and water with sugar in it, af¬ 
ter dinner, and another after supper. His limit at one period, 
when at Rochelle, was one quart of rum a week, for himself 
and friends, for Mr. Paine was rather penurious in his old age. 
This, and this alone, is the only moral fault we find in his 
character, and we wish to be his impartial historian. His 
manner of life at this time we get from Mr. Burger, a respect¬ 
able watchmaker in New York, but then a clerk in the only 
store at Rochelle, who served Mr. Paine with his liquor, and 
waited upon him when sick, and drove him about the neigh¬ 
borhood at the request of his employer, and thus saw much 
of his social habits. This gentleman never saw Mr. Paine 


PREFACE. 


13 


intoxicated. Carver, with whom Paine lived, but from whom 
he parted in anger, is the only man we know who has not 
spoken distinctly on that subject; and he remarks, that 
“ Paine was like other men [at that period], he would some* 
times take too much.” But Carver had unfortunately commit¬ 
ted himself on this subject in an angry letter, the same on 
which Cheetham based his libel. In fact, this letter is the 
groundwork for all Cheetham’s calumnies. Mr. Grant Thor- 
burn, a few years back, republished this letter in his “Forty 
Years’ Residence,” on which occasion Carver vindicates him¬ 
self in one of his last publications, where he thus speaks of 
that letter: — 

EXTRACT FROM “a BONE TO GNAW FOR GRANT THORBURN,” BY W. 

CARVER. 

“When I first read the life of Grant Thorburn, I made this 
remark, and wrote it on the cover of his book : ‘ I have read 
this life of Grant Thorburn. I presume a great part of which 
it is composed has no more connexion with his life than mine, 
or the pope of Rome’s, to wit: the corresponding letters be¬ 
tween Thomas Paine and myself, and those letters I have cut 
out of his book.’ These letters were first printed by Cheet¬ 
ham without my consent for base purposes, after he became a 
tory and a hypocritical turncoat, like Grant Thorburn, who 
has now reprinted them for the same purpose. They were 
written by Paine and me in anger. Mr. Paine had boarded 
with me without any regular agreement, and we quarrelled 
about the bill, what has happened a thousand times to other 
people ; he wrote angrily and I angrily replied. But the affair 
was amicably settled by Walter Morton and John Fellows ; the 
latter is still living. I think some things Paine said of me 
were not in earnest, and I answered in anger : the letters 
should have been burnt. But Cheetham said many things of 
Paine that were not true, after he turned tory. I told him ‘ I 
believed that he had had his hand crossed with British gold.’ 
Mr. Charles Christian was present; he said to Cheetham : 
‘ That is a bold attack of Carver in your own house.’ He 
replied and said : ‘ I know Carver ; he will contradict a judge 
on the bench if he thinks him not right;’ but he did not deny 
the charge. When Paine was on his deathbed, I wrote him 
the following letter. This shows what opinion I had of him; 
I think he was one of the greatest men that ever lived. 

‘ Dear Sir : I have heard that you are much indisposed in 
health, and that your mind, at present, is not reconciled to 
me. Be that as it may, I can assure you that, on my part, ] 


14 


PREFACE. 


bear no ill-will, but still remain your sincere well-wisher; and 
am still a zealous supporter and defender of the principles 
that you have advocated, believing they are founded on im¬ 
mortal truth and justice ; therefore I think it a pity that you 
or myself should depart this life with envy in our hearts 
against each other — and I firmly believe that no difference 
would have taken place between us, had not some of those of 
your pretended friends endeavored to have caused a separa¬ 
tion of friendship between us. 

I, sir, want nothing of you or from you, but only that the 
ignorant and superstitious herd may not have it in their pow¬ 
er to exclaim and say that Thomas Paine or Carver died 
without a reconciliation to each other. I have often told my 
friends, if I were on my dying bed, I should send for you, ho¬ 
ping that all our differences might be buried in oblivion before 
our bodies were buried in the grave, as I hope that my dying 
pillow may not be planted with thorns; I consider that time 
with me is short, and perhaps shorter with you. If I never 
should see you again in this world, I wish you all the conso¬ 
lation that your great mind is capable of enjoying, and that 
you may resign yourself with full confidence on your Maker, 
and leave a noble testimony to the world of the independency 
of your mind and honesty of your heart ; and this, my friend, 
will produce to you more comfort than all the prayers of the 
priests in the Christian world. 

Yours in friendship, 

WM. CARVER.’ 

Mr. Grant Thorburn, mentioned above, scarcely knew Mr. 
Paine, as Mr. Carver observes, nor does his conduct command 
respect. 

Such are the men, who, admitting the truth of Mr. Paine’s 
writings, seek to destroy their effects by the most puerile 
attack on his private character. Cheetham, Thorburn, and 
others, have repeated slanders suggested in an angry letter; 
the enemies of Paine, corrupt statesmen, and the clergy in 
particular, have so industriously circulated these slanders, as 
even to deceive the very friends of Mr. Paine. In commen¬ 
cing our inquiries we really thought the fact that Mr. Paine 
was a drunkard in old age was well established. In seeking, 
however, for the proofs of this, we arrive at a very different 
conclusion. In the course of this work we shall show the 
sources from which we have derived our information. 

G. 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 


PART I. 

Most men pursue personal happiness and their own great¬ 
ness as worthy objects; but Mr. Paine labored for the great¬ 
ness of the nation of which he was a member, and sought its 
nappiness ; and in the pursuit of which he built up his own 
greatness and promoted his own happiness. Nothing will be 
clearer established by this record of his life than the fact now 
alluded to ; and this fact marks him as peculiarly distinguish¬ 
ed even among great and good men. We are not, how¬ 
ever, about to write a eulogy; to enhance his virtues, or to 
suppress his faults, or vices. Paine was a part of human 
nature, and partook of its imperfections; and our purpose is 
fairly to represent him as he was ; but the greater part of 
Mr. Paine’s life was public , and as such we know of no 
man who had greater virtues or less vices. His natural life is 
distinctly marked into four periods: his history in England 
before he embarked for North America; his residence and 
exertions in this country during the revolutionary war; his 
return to Europe, and his exertions in France and England 
during the great French revolution and revolutionary war ; 
and his final return and residence in the United States till his 
death. The first part will necessarily be the least interesting ; 
his merits were only known to a few; but fortunately among 
those few was Dr. Franklin (by whose advice he visited this 
country). We have already noticed Sherwin’s life of Paine, 
and as we find Faine’s early life fairly delineated there, with 
some exceptions, we shall at once transcribe so much of that 



16 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


work as suits our purpose ; correcting- it where we find it 
necessary, and making such additions as we think proper from 
the abundant facts we have accumulated. 

THE EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

“ Thomas Paine, the subject of these memoirs, was born at 
Thetford. in the county of Norfolk, England, on the *29th of 
January, 1737. His parents were obscure as to birth, having 
nothing to depend upon, except what was derived from their 
own industry. His father, Joseph Paine, was a member of the 
society of quakers, a person of sober habits and good moral 
character : he obtained a decent, but humble livelihood by 
following his trade, which was that of a staymaker.. The 
maiden name of his mother was Frances Cocke, the daughter 
of an attorney at Thetford, and a member of the established 
church. It was probably owing to the disagreement in the 
religious tenets of his parents that Paine was never baptized. 
He was, however, privately named, and through the pious 
care of his aunt, he was afterward confirmed by the bishop 
of Norwich. 

At an early age, Paine was sent to the grammar-school at 
Thetford, where he was taught reading, writing, and accounts. 
Before he left this school, he likewise obtained a slight knowl¬ 
edge of the Latin tongue; but from the aversion or contempt 
which he subsequently acquired for the study of the dead 
languages, or from want of opportunity, it does not appear 
that they ever became the objects of settled attention. 

It does not seem, or at least it is not known, that, during 
his boyhood, he exhibited any peculiar signs of that genius 
which was afterward to exalt him to the very pinnacle of 
political fame. But from a passage in the ‘Age of Reason,’ it 
is evident, that however matured in judgment he might be 
before he became a politician, his first impressions on the sub¬ 
ject of religion were made at a very early period of his life. 

Paine himself says: ‘From the time I was capable of 
conceiving an idea, and acting upon it by reflection, I either 
doubted the truth of the Christian system, or thought it to be 
a strange affair; I scarcely knew which it was: but I well 
remember, when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a 
sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee 
of the church, upon the subject of what is called redemption 
by the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I went into 
the garden, and as I was going down the garden steps (for I 
perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the recollection of 
what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making 
God Almighty act like a passionate man that killed his son, 
when he could not revenge himself any other way ; and as I 
was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could 


A STAYMAKER-GOES TO SEA. 


n 


not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This 
was not one of those hind of thoughts that had anything in it 
of childish levity ; it was to me a serious reflection, arising 
from the idea I had, that God was too good to do such an 
action, and also too almighty to be under any necessity of 
doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment; and 
I moreover believe, that, any system of religion that has any 
thing in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true 
system .’—'-Age of Reason' Part I., p. 37. 

At the age of thirteen he was taken from school by his 
father, who, unable from his circumstances to apprentice him 
to any other trade, employed him as an assistant in the business 
of staymaking. Whether he was ever bound apprentice does 
not appear, nor is it a matter of much consequence. The 
sedentary shopboard had few attractions for our author, and 
he left it the first opportunity. After remaining with his 
father about three years, he left his native town and proceeded 
to London, where he doubtless hoped to better his circum- 
stances ; conceiving, as many had done before him, that the 
metropolis was the only place where a youth can attain a 
proper knowledge of the world, and the only scene where 
natural talent can find an opportunity of displaying itself to 
the best advantage. His mind, which nature appears to have 
formed for enterprise, was of too aspiring a turn to be restrict¬ 
ed to the limits of a provincial town, or to brook the idea of 
being confined for life to a business which would not only 
have cramped his genius, but which at best would have 
afforded him but a scanty livelihood. His prospects in Lon¬ 
don, however, do not seem to have been at first much more 
inviting than those he had left in the country. On his arrival, 
he found himself without either friends or money, and desti¬ 
tute of the means of procuring any, except by again having 
recourse to the business he had just deserted. He applied to 
a Mr. Morris, a staymaker, in Hanover Street, Long Acre, of 
whom he procured employment for some weeks. From Lon¬ 
don he went to Dover, where he worked at his business for a 
short time, with a Mr. Grace. 

How long a time elapsed from the period of his leaving 
his father to his quitting Mr. Grace does not appear, nor, if 
known, would it be a matter of much interest. Probably, not 
more than two or three months. Finding himself baffled in 
the expectations he had formed on quitting his home, he left 
his second employer, and went on board the Terrible priva¬ 
teer, Captain Death. To a mind like his, which appears at 
the time we are speaking of, to have been ardent in the ex¬ 
treme, it is not surprising that the war which had just then 
been declared against France, afforded an abundant field of 
enterprising anticipation. Situated as he was, and feeling as 
he probably did, the army or the navy was his only choice, 


18 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


and he took the latter because it was nearest at hand. How 
long he remained on board the Terrible, has not been ascer¬ 
tained ; but from bis own account of the affair, the time must 
have been short. ‘From this adventure,’ says he, ‘I was 
happily prevented by the affectionate and moral remonstrance 
of a good father, who, from his own habits of life, being of the 
quaker profession, must begin to look upon me as lost.’ 

Paine had been induced to go to sea from the impressions 
which the master of the school at Thetford had given him ; 
who having been a chaplain on board a man-of-war, retained 
much of the enthusiasm of the sea service, and indirectly 
infused it into the most ardent of his scholars. This affair 
made a considerable impression at the time ; but, like most 
of the impressions of youth, it soon wore away, and left his 
disposition for enterprise in much the same state as it was 
before the circumstance occurred. Shortly afterward, he 
entered on board the King of Prussia privateer, Captain 
Mendez ; but as no account has been published of this trans¬ 
action, except that given by himself, it does not appear how 
long he remained at sea, or what occurred to induce him to 
desert the naval profession altogether, and resume his own 
business. 

In the year 1759, he settled at Sandwich as a master-stay- 
maker. There he soon became acquainted with a young 
woman of the name of Mary Lambert, to whom he was mar¬ 
ried about the end of the same year. She was the daughter 
of an exciseman, and is said to have possessed considerable 
personal attractions. 

His staymaking business not exactly answering his expect¬ 
ations, he removed with his wife to Margate, where she died 
in the year 1760. From Margate he went to London, and 
from London he again removed to Thetford. 

Here he resolved upon relinquishing his business altogether. 
He had long wished for some employment more concenial to 
his turn of mind. At length, through the interference of Mr. 
Cocksedge, the recorder at Thetford, he obtained a situation 
in the excise. This was toward the end of 1763. 

For some trifling fault he was dismissed from this situation, 
in something more than a year afterward. What the nature 
of that fault was, has never been satisfactorily explained ; but 
those who are acquainted with the practices of the excise, 
must be well convinced that if the offence had been of any 
magnitude, he would never have been restored to the office, 
which was the case in about eleven months after his dismissal.” 

Mr. Paine, it appears, sent a petition to the board of excise 
begging to be restored to his situation. In the petition, Paine 
admits the justice of his dismissal, but uses the expression 


DISMISSED FROM THE EXCISE. 


19 


“No complaint of the least dishonesty or intemperance ever 
appeared against me.” For what he was dismissed is not 
stated, and what is very remarkable, his enemies in the Brit¬ 
ish government who must have known the cause of his dis¬ 
missal, never made it public, although they sought to destroy 
him by every means. We consequently conclude that he 
was not criminal, or such an opportunity would not have 
been omitted. Those who have lived on the coast of Eng¬ 
land know that the impartial exercise of an exciseman’s duty, 
will expose him to censure ; for they will know that those 
who make and administer the laws are themselves concerned 
in smuggling. Clio Hickman, the friend of Paine, exposed a 
flagitious case of this kind, involving even the prime minister 
of England, which, from its peculiarity, we shall insert:— 

“When Admiral Duncan rendezvoused in the Downs with 
his fleet on the eighth of January, 1806 , the Spider (lugger), 
Daniel Falara, master, was sent to Guernsey to smuggle arti¬ 
cles for the fleet, such as wine, spirits, hair-powder, playing- 
cards, tobacco, &c., for the supply of the different ships. 

At her arrival in the Downs, the ships’ boats flocked round 
her to unload her and her contraband cargo. A customhouse 
extra boat, commanded by William Wallace, seeing the lug¬ 
ger, followed and took her ; in doing which he did his duty. 

On his inspecting the smuggled articles with which she 
was laden, he found a number of cases directed to Admiral 
Duncan, the Right Honorable William Pitt, the heaven-born 
minister of England, and to the Right Honorable Henry Dun- 
das, Waimer Castle. In a few days, Wallace, the master of 
the customhouse cutter, received orders from government to 
give the lugger and her smuggled cargo up, on penalty of 
being dismissed the service, and these cases of smuggled 
goods were afterward delivered at the prime minister’s, Mr. 
Pitt’s, at Waimer Castle.” 

At this very time, says Clio Rickman, there were fourteen 
poor persons in owe jail in England for smuggling. From the 
surprising silence of Paine’s enemies on the subject of his 
dismissal, we strongly suspect it was connected with some¬ 
thing they did not want exposed. 

“After his dismission he proceeded to London, where he 
became a teacher in an academy kept by Mr. Noble of Good¬ 
man’s Fields. In this situation he remained until the period 
of his restorition to office. It is probable that it was during 


20 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


his stay in London at this period, he applied himself to the 
study of astronomy and natural philosophy, and that this is 
the time he alludes to, when he says, ‘As soon as I was able I 
purchased a pair of globes, and attended the philosophical 
lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and became afterward ac¬ 
quainted with Dr. Bevis of the Society called the Royal 
Society, and an excellent astronomer.’ Indeed, as he himself 
expresses it, the natural bent of his mind appears to have been 
to science, and though from his disadvantageous situation in 
life he necessarily met with many obstacles, it is evident from 
several of his productions, that he attained a great proficiency 
in mechanics, mathematics, and astronomy. It was from his 
being well grounded in the principles of science, during the 
earlier part of his life, that he afterward became such a pow¬ 
erful adept in reasoning ; it was from the mathematical prin¬ 
ciples which had been engrafted on his mind while it was yet 
tender enough to receive the impressions of instruction, that 
he was subsequently enabled to write with such precision 
upon almost any subject, that he was enabled to reduce ab¬ 
struseness to simplicity, to understand difficult subjects him¬ 
self, and to render them intelligible to others.’ 5 

The enemies of Mr. Paine have represented him as an ignor¬ 
ant, vulgar man, and his style coarse and rude, but imbued 
with strong good sense. His worst enemies allow him the 
latter qualities, except Cheetham ; who, heated by party poli¬ 
tics, and corrupted by expectancies from Britain, has outraged 
common sense by denying Paine any good qualities, while his 
own work abounds with proofs to the contrary. Paine’s style 
was clear, forcible, and elegant: in our opinion, he is the best 
English writer we know. We never misunderstand him ; and 
it is almost impossible to put the same thoughts in fewer or 
better chosen words than he has done. Those who have 
attacked his style, are themselves ignorant or vicious, with 
no literary character to lose. When the clergy have urged 
on their hearers the vulgarity of the style of Mr. Paine, it has 
always appeared to us that they have presumed on the ignor¬ 
ance of their hearers, or have themselves been the dupes of 
what they wished to believe : for Paine was decidedly a learn¬ 
ed man, but self-taught, as indeed most learned men are ; for 
the meager instruction of a school only gives the rudiments— 
the base—that on which the fabric must be raised. Paine’s 
knowledge of the classics was indeed very limited ; perhaps 
the mere elements obtained when a boy at the grammar- 


RESTORED TO THE EXCISE. 


21 


school; but even this gave him one important advantage : the 
little he did know enabled him rightly to estimate the value 
of Greek and Latin, which are of great intrinsic worth only 
in some cases, and of none, to Mr. Paine in any of his pursuits 
or works; and when he stated that a Greek milkman knew 
more of Greek than the best Greek scholar in England, he 
lifted the veil which covered ignorance ; although a scholar 
might know much of the grammar or philosophical construc¬ 
tion of the language, which a Greek milkman might not. In 
his biblical criticisms, he showed that the authorized English 
Bible was not the Word of God ; and thus he cut off all refer¬ 
ence to ancient languages. His acquaintance with mathemat¬ 
ics and natural philosophy was evidently extensive. His ref¬ 
erences to these subjects are frequent, and always pertinent; 
while there is no egotistical display of knowledge or learn¬ 
ing ; yet every learned man knows well the certainty of de¬ 
tecting ignorance in a man who, by references, assumes a 
knowledge of science which he does not possess. Paine 
grappled, too, with the higher branches of the mathematics, 
for he was acquainted with their application to mechanics and 
to bridges ; and this latter is one of the most difficult subjects 
to which they are applied. It was not then a compliment that 
Paine was admitted a member of various learned societies in 
this country, France, and England. He had substantial claims 
to such a standing ; and those who have attempted to degrade 
him on this subject, have taken a mean advantage of his un¬ 
popularity in the religious community, and of the ignorance 
and prejudices of that community against him. We have now 
in our possession a part of a letter in Paine’s handwriting, on 
the difficult subject of fortification, in relation to New York, 
and which he treats in a scientific and masterly manner. The 
subject, too, has his own peculiarity, that of utility and being 
well-timed ; for then it was a desideratum to fortify New York. 

We return now to the narrative of events, and shall again 
make use of Sherwin’s life, as containing an elegant narrative 
of the facts we wish to communicate. On Paine’s petition to 
the board of excise, was written: “July 4th, 1766; to be 
restored on a proper vacancy.” He was therefore restored; 
and leaving his sr-holastic pursuits, he retimed again to the 
excise for several years. 


22 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


“ On his reappointment to the excise, our author immedi¬ 
ately returned from London to Thetford, where he continued 
until the spring of 1768, when he was removed to Lewes, in 
Sussex. There he resided in the house of a person of the 
name of Ollive, a tobacconist. With him he remained up¬ 
ward of twelve months, when the former died, leaving a 
widow, a daughter, and several sons. Our author then left 
the family for a short time, but soon afterward returned, when 
he opened the shop on his own account. In consequence of 
this, and of his having previously lived under the same roof, 
he soon contracted an intimacy with Miss Ollive, the daughter 
of his former landlord, whom he married in the year 1771.” 

At this time Paine appears to have mingled a little politics 
with his pursuits ; and he is reported to have written an elec 
tioneering ballad, and to have been paid for it: but we know 
of none hut a jeu d'esprit , “ The Trial and Execution of the 
Farmer's Dogf in ridicule of both parties, and therefore not 
likely to be paid for by any one ; besides, Paine when better 
known, never made a profit of his political works, or even 
reserved a copyright. We therefore doubt that he was paid 
for such a service; although pay for honorable services, is by 
no means unreasonable. 

In 1772 he wrote “The Case of the Excise Officers,” a 
small pamphlet, on a very limited and unpopular subject: yet 
in this pamphlet Mr. Paine’s style and principles are rec¬ 
ognised. 

“ The same conciseness, clearness, and benevolence, which 
form such prominent features in the future productions of 
Paine, are distinguishable in almost every page of the pamph¬ 
let in question. Exclusive of the ‘Introduction,’ it is divided 
into two parts : ‘ The State of the Salary of the Officers of 
Excise;’ and ‘Thoughts on the Corruption of Principles, 
and on the Numerous Evils arising to the Revenue from the 
too great Poverty of the Officers of Excise.’ In the introduc¬ 
tion is stated the design of the excise officers, in all parts of 
the kingdom, to make an application to parliament to have 
the state of their salaries taken into consideration. The sub¬ 
ject is then entered upon and discussed with all the energy 
and ability which might have been expected from a long-ex¬ 
perienced advocate. The deductions that are made upon the 
exciseman’s salary by unavoidable contingencies, and the 
danger to which his duty necessarily exposes him, are recap¬ 
itulated in the most forcible manner. Under the second head, 
the policy of our author’s object is insisted upon: he advises 


THE CASE OF THE EXCISE OFFICERS. 


23 


the government to render their officers honest by relieving 
their necessities; and the pamphlet concludes by enumerating 
the advantages that would be ensured by adopting the recom¬ 
mendation. 

Of this pamphlet four thousand copies were printed by Mr. 
William Lee, of Lewes ; but to what extent they were circu¬ 
lated I have not been able to learn. It would doubtless be 
read with pleasure and avidity by the class of men who were 
interested in the result; but whatever might be the distresses 
of the excisemen, it was not likely that they would meet with 
much sympathy or encouragement from the public. The 
nature of their occupation, and the unpleasant mode in which 
the duties of it are performed, have always rendered them 
objects of public odium ; and however misdirected or useless 
such odium may be, it will ever continue an appendage to the 
character of those who collect this tyrannical impost. The 
public, therefore, viewed the complaints of the excisemen 
with indifference; and though considerable exertions were 
made by various individuals, as well as our author, there was 
no member to be found to bring the subject before parliament. 
The distresses of the officers, and the consequent depredations 
on the revenue, which our author had so ably pointed out, 
and so zealously endeavored to get removed, were not deemed 
of sufficient importance to merit parliamentary inquiry, and 
the proposal, like many other proposals for the removal of 
public evils, fell to the ground without investigation.” 

During Mr. Paine’s residence at Lewes, he was held as a 
man of talents in the small circle of that town. His company 
was sought by men of greater affluence than himself. He was 
decidedly a good companion, whether engaged in amusements 
or debate. Paine at that time was fond of bowls, then a fash¬ 
ionable game : even Dr. Young, the elegant author of the 
Night Thoughts, was a member of a club, and attended a 
bowling-green. Paine in this amusement mingled with the 
best company in the place. He met, too, an evening club at 
Lewes in the principal tavern, for conversation and debate ; 
and in that society, the best the town afforded, he carried the 
palm as a debater. While, however, he was thus social, he 
neither drank to excess, nor did he indulge in the vulgar habit 
of swearing, a habit he never contracted ; and which, even in 
his latter days, he reproved in some of his intimate friends. 
This fact is confirmed to us by Mr. Jarvis, the celebrated 
painter, with whom Mr. Paine lived sometime before his 
death. This is worthy of note ; for his enemies, foiled by 


24 - 


life OF THOMAS PAINE. 


his arguments, and not being able to attach to him crimes, 
have assumed faults and magnified them into vices. We 
have these facts from those who knew Paine at Lewes, and 
from those who knew the company he kept, and his habits. 
Carver, with whom Paine afterward lived in New York, was 
then an apprentice in the town, and used to saddle Mr. Paine’s 
horse, and well remembers both him and his reputation. We 
know, too, the family of Rickman, who always resided in that 
neighborhood ; and on their information and others we can 
rely. 

“ I have already observed, that on the marriage of our 
author with Miss Ollive, he commenced the business of a 
tobacconist and grocer, which he carried on in much the 
same method as his predecessor had done before him. This 
circumstance, as might have been anticipated, soon rendered 
him an object of suspicion in the eyes of the commissioners, 
and it is not improbable that the zeal which Paine had dis¬ 
played in exposing the pernicious consequences of doling out 
so pitiful a provision to the active class of excisemen, while 
their betters were spending their days in ease and affluence, 
had rendered him an object of dislike among his superiors in 
office. The spirit of independence which he showed on all 
occasions, and which there is very little doubt he communi¬ 
cated in a considerable degree to those around him, was but 
little calculated to ensure the approbation of persons who 
regard implicit obedience as the test of merit, who look upon 
a proposal for reform as a step toward revolution, and the 
protection of abuses as the only mode of perpetuating the 
blessings of the English system of government. Considerable 
pains were taken to discover some flaw in the conduct of 
Paine ; but so strictly had he performed his duty, that nothing 
of any consequence could be substantiated against him. His 
keeping a tobacconist’s shop was, however, a sufficient pre¬ 
text with those who wished to rid themselves of so trouble¬ 
some a servant, and he was a second time dismissed from the 
excise in April, 1774.” 

At this period Paine became unfortunate in his business; 
perhaps he suffered from his social qualities, and a spirit of 
independence. His companions, we have already remarked, 
were generally in better circumstances than himself; and 
these sought his company for its intrinsic worth, for he was 
both instructive and amusing; and perhaps he incurred ex¬ 
penses and a loss of time, which he was unable to afford; 


SEPARATES FROM HIS WIFE 


25 

while a sanguine temper would still afford him hope, till his 
affairs were too bad to mend. His goods, at this period, were 
sold to pay his debts; and in the following month, May, 1774, 
he separated from his wife by mutual consent, and articles were 
signed on the 4th of June, by which she retained the little prop¬ 
erty she had brought him at marriage, and which was just suffi¬ 
cient to maintain her in a decent manner for the rest of her 
life. All the causes of this separation are not known. Mr. 
Paine uniformly spoke of his wife with kindness; and Clio 
Rickman informs us, in his life of Paine, that he frequent¬ 
ly sent her money, without letting her know the source 
whence it came. She was afterward a professor of a sectarian 
religion in Cranbrook, Kent, and boarded in the house of a 
watchmaker, a member of the same church j his house was 
consequently visited by religious people, many of them with 
strong prejudices, and some very ignorant. These, after the 
publication of the “ Age of Reason,” would sometimes speak 
disrespectfully of Mr. Paine in her presence, when she uni¬ 
formly left the room without a word. If, too, she was ques¬ 
tioned on the subject of their separation, she did the same. 
We have these facts from those who resided with her. Our 
most intimate friend at one period, was a Mr. Bourne, a watch¬ 
maker in Rye, about eighteen miles from Cranbrook, England. 
This gentleman was apprenticed in the house where Mrs. 
Paine lived : he sat at the same table with her for years. We 
have these facts confirmed by other residents at Cranbrook 
Thus nothing could be learned from her, except that though 
she differed from Mr. Paine on religious subjects, she could 
not bear to hear him spoken ill of. Paine, as we have before 
remarked, spoke respectfully of her ; but if any person became 
inquisitive, he immediately answered rudely, that “ his sep¬ 
aration was a private affair.” Clio Rickman asserts, and the 
most intimate friends of Mr. Paine support him, that Paine 
never cohabited with his second wife. Sherwin treats the 
subject as ridiculous; but Clio Rickman was a man of integ¬ 
rity, and he asserts that he has the documents showing this 
strange point, together with others, proving that this arose 
from no physical defects in Paine. When the question was 
plainly put to Mr. Paine b} a friend of ours, he admitted this 

4 


*JFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


:,6 

singular fact; but replied, 11 1 had a cause ; it is no business 
of anybody.” Singular, therefore, as this fact is, as both 
parties preserved a taciturnity on the subject, we have not 
the means of arriving at the truth. It was, as Paine said, a 
private affair; and we have not the means of withdrawing the 
veil, and have consequently no right to come to an unchari¬ 
table conclusion toward either party. We however infer that 
Paine had a cause ; without which his wife ought to and would 
have exposed him, especially as she was surrounded by his 
bitter enemies. 

Paine, while at Lewes, was a whig ; and as such never 
thought of examining the first principles of government. A 
king, lords, and commons, were admitted as forming the best 
government by the admixture of the three sorts, royal, aris¬ 
tocratic, and democratic. As a whig, all he sought was the 
preservation of the supposed constitution ; but a trifling ex¬ 
pression from one of his companions, gave his thoughts a 
deeper range, and formed the basis of his “ Common Sense” and 
11 Rights of Man,” which afterward so materially influenced the 
people in North America, France, and England. While sitting 
over some punch after a game at bowls, a Mr. Verral observed 
of Frederick, king of Prussia, that “ he was the best fellow in 
the world for a king; he had so much of the devil in him.” 
Simple and accidental as this observation was, it turned Paine’s 
thoughts on the rights by which kings existed and governed, 
and thus led him into an examination of the inherent rights ot 
the people ; while the breaking up of his business, and separa¬ 
tion from his wife, led him forward to the proper scene in which 
his talents and his principles could be properly estimated. 
Sherwin, speaking of this period, remarks : 

“ Our author was by this and prior events relieved from 
every tie which might be supposed to bind him to his country 
Deprived of his home, and destitute of friends and employ¬ 
ment, he had to commence life anew, and that without either 
credit or capital. His parents were become much advanced 
in years ; their industry was no more than sufficient to pro¬ 
cure a maintenance for themselves, and therefore Paine could 
not have derived, even if he had desired, any assistance from 
their k ndness. The cheerless prospect which lay expanded 
before him, the misfortunes that had already befallen him, and 
the desolate situation in which he was then placed, must have 


LOSES HIS PROPERTY AND PROSPECTS. 


21 

impressed upon his mind the idea that to whatever country 
he went, it was impossible for his condition to become worse. 
In England there was no hope. Every change only brought 
an accumulation of fresh misfortunes. Borne down by 
poverty, and surrounded by difficulties of every description, 
his condition appears to have been that of a ruined, hopeless 
man. 

In this situation many would have sat down discouraged 
without a struggle. But despair and dismay appear to 
have formed no part of Paine’s character. He seems never 
to have sunk into the extreme of depression, or to have risen 
to that tumultuous gladness which so often accompanies the 
extreme of elevation. His mind appears never to have been 
crushed by defeat, or elated by success. The unshaken for¬ 
titude which can smile on disappointment and danger, and 
look serenely amidst the tumult of triumph, seems to have 
been the most prominent feature in his character. 

“After the sale of his effects and the separation from his 
wife were concluded, our author again went to London. By 
what means he procured a living during his stay in the me¬ 
tropolis is unknown, but soon after his arrival he obtained an 
introduction to Dr. Franklin, who advised him to go to Amer¬ 
ica. The doctor probably perceived in his interviews with 
Paine that he was a man possessed of abilities of no ordinary 
character, and this accounts for the readiness with which he 
furnished him with a letter of introduction to one of his 
most intimate friends in the United States. Our author was 
thus afforded an opportunity of beginning life again, and that 
at an age when his ardent and enterprising spirit must have 
been considerably tamed by the sharp lessons of adversity. 
He had as he himself observes,‘served an apprenticeship to life,’ 
and it is more than probable that those sublime ideas on the 
subject of liberty which were afterward to raise his name so 
very high in the temple of fame, were produced by his early 
misfortunes. 

1 By wo the soul to daring action swells ; 

By wo in plaintness patience it excels ; 

From patience, prudent, clear experience springs, 

And traces knowledge through the cause of things ! 

Thence hope is formed, thence fortitude, success, 

Renown—whate’er men covet and caress.’ 

Savage. 

Poverty is certainly not the parent of genius, but it is un¬ 
questionably its best preceptor. The finest productions we 
have in the language have been written by men whose intel¬ 
lectual powers have forced their way into life under circum¬ 
stances of the most abject penury. In most instances it has 
happened that the fire of genius has been long confined by 


28 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


the heavy black clouds of adversity, before it acquired suffi. 
cient strength to burst its boundary ; and as the streaming 
lightning is more or less vivid in proportion to the density or 
lightness of the clouds which encompass it, so it has gener¬ 
ally proved that the powers of a fine imagination have been 
more or less brilliant, in proportion to the poverty or plenty 
by which the possessor was surrounded. The enlivening wit 
of Congreve, the melting scenes of Otway, the rural tender¬ 
ness and pathetic simplicity of Goldsmith, and the dignified 
ease and elegance of Thomson, would have been unknown to 
us, if these luminaries in the hemisphere of literature had 
been born in a state of affluence; for though the men might 
have lived with much more comfort to themselves than they 
did, it is very probable that the easy couch and plentiful board 
would have destroyed the inspiration which gave birth to 
their finest productions. 

But to our author. He had by this time seen enough of 
the world to despise its follies, and he had witnessed too ma¬ 
ny of the bad effects of misgovernment in his native country 
to feel any affection for them, when directed against the 
country of which he was about to become a citizen. Dr. 
Franklin could not therefore have selected a man more likely 
to repay his kindness in vindicating the cause of the people, 
by whom he was deputed ambassador to England. Our au¬ 
thor sailed from this country [England] toward the end of 
the year 1774, and arrived at Philadelphia about two months 
afterward.” 

We have thus briefly brought Mr. Paine to the close of the 
first period of his life; a period of no important interest to 
the public ; and only valuable as qualifying him for the other 
periods, which belonged wholly to the public. His good 
sense was the work of nature; his acquired knowledge, 
whether of books or men, was the effect of study and obser¬ 
vation ; but to these was added experience, the result of 
accident; but admirably adapted to fit him for his future tasks, 
of which he could have no conception. We have seen him 
necessarily a mechanic, a sailor, a tradesman, an exciseman, 
a storekeeper, and a teacher, acquainted with London, and 
different sections of Great Britain; intimate with the cor¬ 
ruptions and revenue of the country from his connexion with 
the excise ; an author, a politician, and associating with vari¬ 
ous classes in the community; with a habit for observation 
md original thinking, and thus qualified to address a whole 



LEAVES ENGLAND. 


29 


people on the subject of liberty. His father a quaker, his 
mother of the established church, and his wife and her 
friends dissenters, he could have but little religious prejudice. 
While accident, however painful to himself, which sent him 
to this country, unencumbered with either wife, family, or 
' fortune, contributed highly to render him devoted to the 
people among whom he was about to reside, during their 
arduous struggle in support of liberty. 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINS 


PART II. 

FROM MR. PAINE’S ARRIVAL IN AMERICA TO THE END OF THE WAR 
OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Mr. Paine having resolved to leave England, brought letters 
of recommendation from Dr. Franklin, then on an embassy 
from a northern state to the British government in London. 
Mr. Paine left England in the autumn of 1774, and arrived at 
Philadelphia in the latter part of the same year ; and not in 
1772, as Dr. Rush states. Sherwin correctly says : 

“From this period to the day of his death, the abilities of 
Paine never lay dormant. Very shortly after his arrival in 
Philadelphia, he became acquainted with Mr. Aitkin, a re¬ 
spectable bookseller of that town. In January, 1775, Mr. Ait¬ 
kin commenced the publication of the Pennsylvania Magazine, 
of which Paine became the editor. Many of the pieces in 
this publication are truly elegant. In these, as in most of his 
other writings, he is singularly happy in clothing an original 
boldness of thought with a peculiar beauty of diction. The 
article in which he treats of the hidden riches of the earth, 
and the diligence with which we ought to search after them, 
is a fine specimen of this rare combination. The well-known 
song on the death of General Wolfe, appeared in an early 
number of this magazine ; and it is unquestionably one of th<f 
most beautiful productions of the sort in the English language 
The ideas would have done honor to any of the poets of old, 
and the poetry is an example of the most polished versifica¬ 
tion. As this little piece is still much admired, even by those 
who disapprove of its author’s political and religious notions, 
I here insert it, as transcribed from an original copy: 

SONG ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. 

‘In a mouldering cave, where the wretched retreat, 

Britannia sat wasted with care: 

She mourned for her Wolfe, and exclaimed against fate 
And gave herself up to despair. 

The walls of her cell she had sculptured around 
With the feats of her favorite son, 

And even the dust, as it lay on the ground. 

Was engraved with some deeds he had done. 




.iirrES ON THE DEATH OF WOLFE. 31 

The sire of the gods, from his crystalline throne, 

Beheld the disconsolate dame, 

And, moved with her tears, he sent Mercury down 
And these were the tidings that came: 

“ Britannia, forbear, not a sigh or a tear, 

For thy Wolfe, so deservedly loved ; 

Your tears shall be changed into triumphs of joy, 

For thy Wolfe is not dead, but removed. 

The sons of the east, the proud giants of old, 

Have crept from their darksome abodes, 

And this is the news, as in heaven it was told, 

They were marching to war wiih the gods. 

A council was held in the chambers of Jove, 

And this was their final decree, 

That Wolfe should be called to the armies above 
And the charee was intrusted to me. 

To the plains of Quebec with the orders I flew, 

He begged for a moment’s delay ; 

He cried, ‘ Oh forbear, let me victory hear, 

And then thy commands I’ll obey/ 

With a darksome thick film 1 encompassed his eyes. 

And bore him away in an urn ; 

Lest the fondness he bore to his own native shore 
Should induce him again to return.” ’ 

In addition to the above, he wrote several other articles for 
the Pennsylvania Magazine, of considerable literary merit. 
These principally consist of a letter to the publisher on the 
utility of magazines in general; ‘Useful and Entertaining 
Hints on the Internal Riches of the Colonies;’ ‘Reflections 
on the Death of Lord Clive ;’ and ‘ New Anecdotes of Alex¬ 
ander the Great.’ The ‘ Reflections on the Death of Lord 
Clive,’ I have not seen, though I have been at considerable 
pains to procure them ; but I have been informed that they 
contain much originality of thought, and that they caused the 
work to be sought after with great avidity. He likewise wrote 
for the same publication an elegant little piece in the form of 
a poetical dialogue, between a snowdrop and a critic, in which 
the former is made to describe the variety and pleasure in¬ 
tended to be conveyed to the public through the medium of 
the new work, in opposition to the cavilling objections of the 
latter. These productions are already in the possession of 
the public, and they serve to show the versatility of our 
author’s disposition.” 

Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, and formerly a member of that 
congress which declared these states independent, in his letter 
to Cheetham, says that Paine came to this country with the 
design of opening a school for the instruction of young ladies 
in branches of literature not then generally taught. Paine’s 
introduction to Mr. Aitkin appears to have been through Dr. 
Franklin’s recommendations. There Dr. Rush met him ; and 
afterward, being excited by an article in one of Mr. Aitkin’s 


32 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


papers on the subject of the African slavery, he sought his 
acquaintance. And in that letter ascribes to himself suggest 
ing to Paine the subject of his “ Common Sense,” and the title. 
That letter, though highly favorable to Paine,^ is certainly 
egotistical, which renders this suggestion doubtful ; especially 
as the object of Cheetham in getting that letter written to him, 
as well as others from different persons, was obviously to pare 
off, if possible, any part of Paine’s reputation. Dr. Rush was 
clearly incorrect in one of his dates ; and distinctly marks 
his prejudice in conclusively stating, that he declined to see 
Paine on his last return to this country, on account of the 
principles avowed in his “Age of Reason.” This observation, 
though intended by Dr. Rush to exalt himself at the expense 
of Mr. Paine, and as such is published by Cheetham, is, in fact, 
highly important. It satisfactorily accounts for many of Paine’s 
early sycophants deserting him, without any dereliction of 
personal worth on his part. 

Mr. Paine’s acquaintance with Dr. Franklin ; the object of 
his coming to this country (to introduce a higher scale of 
education than that in use); his first employment (engaged 
or hired to edit a new magazine, and other periodicals pub¬ 
lished by Aitkin) ; the success and reputation of those publi¬ 
cations, and his acquaintance with Dr. Rush as a consequence 
of his reputation ; the very idea of Dr. Rush suggesting to 
Mr. Paine the subject of a pamphlet to act on the people, 
whether true or false, together with the circumstances just 
noted, mark Mr. Paine as then possessing literary attainments 
in an eminent degree ; and ought to have preserved him 
against the vulgar abuse with which so many of the clergy 
and his theological opponents have assailed him. This attack 
on his literary character, successful in an extraordinary de¬ 
gree, depended on the suppression of his works; the pre¬ 
sumption of the ignorance of those works by the body of the 
party addressed ; and on the assumption of the power of the 
clergy to prevent those works being read. It is remarkable, 
that Cheetham, dishonest in his purposes, and, comparatively 
with Paine, of small abilities, and very prejudiced and ignor¬ 
ant, makes also this charge, while he himself furnishes the 
most satisfactory proofs to the contrary. In Cheetham’s life 


HIS STYLE IN POLITE LITERATURE. 


33 


is to be found the song vve have already inserted. He likewise 
furnishes the following beautiful extract from the pen of Paine, 
published in an early number of Aitkin’s magazine, from which 
the style of Paine may be inferred in what is called polite 
literature. 

“ In one of his lucubrations, adverting to the riches of the 
earth, the diligence which is necessary to discover, and the 
labor to possess them, he thus elegantly invites us to industry 
nnd research:— 

i Though nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is 
sullen, rude, and niggardly at home. Return the visit, and 
she admits you with all the suspicion of. a miser, and all the 
reluctance of an antiquated beauty retired to replenish her 
charms. Bred up in antideluvian notions, she has not yet ac¬ 
quired the European taste of receiving visitants in her dres¬ 
sing-room : she locks and bolts up her private recesses with 
extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve her 
hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face 
that was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that 
would view nature in her undress, and partake of her internal 
treasures, must proceed with the resolution of a robber, if not 
a ravisher. She gives no invitation to follow her to the cav¬ 
ern : the external earth makes no proclamation of the interior 
stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery of the 
whole. In such gifts as nature can annually recreate, she is 
noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the 
interest of her fortunes, but watches over the capital with*the 
care of a miser. Her gold and jewels lie concealed in the 
earth in caves of utter darkness; the hoards of wealth, heaps 
upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the riches of a necro¬ 
mancer’s cell. It must be very pleasant to an adventurous 
speculatist to make excursions into these Gothic regions ; 
and in his travels he may possibly come to a cabinet locked 
up in some rocky vault, whose treasures shall reward his toil, 
and enable him to shine on his return as splendidly as nature 
herself.’ ” 

Were Paine’s works known and read, the slander about his 
vulgar style would necessarily be confuted, without the labor 
of an advocate ; and we regret the necessity of exposing the 
meanness which would suggest such a course to suppress a 
theological opponent. We are happy to find that his bitter 
enemies should be compelled to resort *o falsehood for such 
a purpose. This conduct on the part of nis personal enemies, 

5 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


$4 

ought then to awaken suspicion that this is not the onlj, false 
and malicious slander under which Paine has too long lain. 

That a man who could write poetry so well should have 
written so little, is at once a mark of his good sense and 
strong resolution. Paine had remarked that poets were gen¬ 
erally pretty triflers, and he suppressed a talent which he 
thought of little use to society. It is eyident that Paine was 
not naturally fond of politics ; he was led by circumstances, 
and a strong sense of justice and utility, into the course he 
took. The beauties of nature and the happiness of the human 
family occupied his mind. And the violence done to nature, 
and to human happiness by tyranny and superstition, together 
with the remarkable events of his day, deflected his course 
from the pursuits of peace, which he was so fitted to enjoy, 
into the more violent but useful course he did pursue. The 
man who could write the beautiful article we have just 
quoted, did not want the excitement of a storm or a revolu¬ 
tion to give zest to life. Nothing could be more beautiful 
than either Paine’s poetry or prose ; he possesses not only 
strength and clearness, but a beauty of diction surpassed by 
no English writer we know: and if we wished to recommend 
a single model for fine English composition, we should cer¬ 
tainly name Paine’s writings as the best. 

We find Mr. Paine so completely identified with every great 
point in the revolution, and of the independence of this coun¬ 
try, that we cannot do justice to him without giving a brief 
but clear account of those events, and the circumstances 
which led to them. Indeed, some of the most important 
events to be related were actually created or produced by 
him. Other men have followed events ; Paine actually crea¬ 
ted them. 

Soon after the discovery of this continent colonies began 
to be planted in North America. During the last century the 
French held the north or Canada, and large portions of the 
south and west. The English had several colonies in the 
middle, while other Europeans had made small settlements. 
These colonies were little regarded at first; they were safe¬ 
ly- valves for daring spirits who were discontented at home. 
The inhabitants formed an amalgamation, as they have done 


CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 35 

since, from every clime ; but with the exception of those 
transported to these shores for their crimes, they were indus¬ 
trious and independent, the general characteristics of all vol¬ 
untary emigrants. Colonies have always been regarded by 
the English government only as they profit the mother-coun¬ 
try, or rather the party governing. In the first place large 
grants of territory were made by various English sovereigns, 
either as rewards to favorites, or for some services received, 
and these grants being made without a correct knowledge of 
the country or rights of the natives, they were frequently 
given with uncertain boundaries ; which, as we shall presently 
see, was the remote cause of the American war of independ¬ 
ence. When the colonists, by dint of their own industry, 
could raise a surplus of some produce, they became importers 
of manufactured goods, and as such an object of attention to 
the government of Great Britain. But the interference of 
the British government was for their own benefit. They ap¬ 
pointed governors, always sycophants of power, to be paid 
by the colonists. And they regulated their trade so as to 
produce to Great Britain the greatest advantage. A liberal 
policy, the mutual benefit of both parties, has never yet been 
conceived and executed by any ministry. The very princi¬ 
ples of the British government laid the seeds of discontent, 
and established two interests: the governor pursued his own 
and the interests of Britain, or rather what he thought the 
interests of the British government; while the assemblies 
formed by the people, and their juries (for British settlers 
claimed British rights and customs), naturally preferred the 
interests of the colonies. 

In 1750, a company was formed in London called the Ohio 
company. They obtained a grant of six hundred thousand 
acres of land on the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. This grant 
was made without much regard to the Indian rights, and as it 
cut off the northern French territories from their southern 
and western, the French resisted it in practice. The trade 
of this company was chiefly carried on by the Virginians; but 
these traders were constantly annoyed by the French, who at 
last built a fort on the Ohio, and a French governor went so 
far as to order the seizure of every British subject found tra- 


36 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


ding there. To counteract this the Virginians formed a 
troop with which to protect their traders, and in this troop 
Washington w r as employed as a volunteer in the year 1753, 
and in the winter of that year undertook an arduous embassy 
to the French commandant, through a district that could not 
then be travelled by a horse, and at this early period marked 
out spots eligible for forts, especially Fort Duquesne. The 
embassy failing, force was attempted, and Washington became 
lieutenant to Colonel Fry. The French fort became the thea¬ 
tre of war, which was alternately taken and retaken ; during 
which petty battles Colonel Fry died and left Washington in 
command; and in this situation the general of the revolution 
gained some fame from a masterly retreat before a very su¬ 
perior force of regular French soldiers. When the British 
government heard of these transactions they resolved to profit 
by them, and to dispossess the French of some of their terri¬ 
tories through the means and at the expense of the colonies. 
They directed the governors of the several states to form a 
union, and raise a force ; and that these united governors, as¬ 
sisted by two members of their respective council, should 
direct the whole, and draw upon the British treasury for the 
necessary expenses, in the first instance, but to be reimbursed 
by a tax laid on the colonies by the British parliament. This 
is the origin of the question which led to the disputes between 
Great Britain and the colonies, which ultimately led to 
independence. Franklin was consulted on this subject by 
Governor Shirley, and he at once declared the principle of 
taxation by the British parliament, in which they were not 
represented, to be unconstitutional and unjust. And thus he, 
too, as early as 1754, was initiated into the principles and in¬ 
to the subjects on which he so much distinguished himself 
at a period twenty years later. 

In 1755, the king of Great Britain, George II., sent out a 
large armament, Admiral Boscawen, to St. Lawrence, and 
General Braddock to Virginia, without a declaration of war, 
assuming that the French had commenced hostilities; and 
Washington became the aid-de-camp of Braddock. Braddock 
led his army into the field, relying chiefly on his veterans j 
nay, actually despising the militia of the country, and neg. 



causes of tiie American revolution. 


37 


Jecting the experience of Washington. Near Fort Duquesne 
he was caught in an Indian defile, and subject to a species of 
warfare he was unaccustomed to; and in that battle he was 
slain. Washington extricated the army from its perilous sit¬ 
uation, retreated to Philadelphia, and afterward defended the 
frontiers of Virginia with much ability. Pitt, afterward Lord 
Chatham, becoming minister in England, pushed the war with 
vigor ; and sent out Lord Amherst, an excellent commander, 
assisted by Wolfe, General Forbes, and others. In 1758, 
Forbes took Fort Duquesne, while Wolfe lost his life at, but 
took Quebec ; and in 1760 Amherst took Montreal ; and in 
1762, the whole of Canada and French North America was 
yielded to the English, except New Orleans and the adjacent 
province. At this period, and in the following year, the col¬ 
onists were perfectly content. They did not expect Indian 
aggression when not supported by French power. They were 
satisfied with Britain imposing on them governors, as repre¬ 
sentatives of royalty, while they enjoyed their colonial assem¬ 
blies, their trial by jury, and other British rights ; they were 
in fact, satisfied British subjects, approving of king, lords, and 
commons, and, like other British subjects, boasted of their 
liberty and their matchless constitution ; which they really 
thought, for the opinion was common, that this mixed gov¬ 
ernment united all that was excellent in each ; while the 
parts checking each other, suppressed all that was vicious in 
royalty, aristocracy, or democracy. They were afterward to 
be taught the fallacy of these opinions by Thomas Paine. At 
this period, 1763, they were politically divided, as in England, 
into whigs and tories ; or those who assumed to defend or 
extend the popular part of the government, and those who 
leaned to the aristocratical part, and favored the restriction 
of representation to property qualifications, and privileged or 
self-elected corporations : but the whigs predominated. It is 
to this period, 1763, that the colonists constantly refer in the 
early part of their revolution, before the declaration of inde¬ 
pendence, as the situation to which they wished to be restor¬ 
ed; and therefore it deserves particular attention. Parlia¬ 
mentary taxation had been named, but never enforced or 
acted upon ; and in all their after-petitions all they ask, is the 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


38 

repeal of laws since 1763. “Place us,” they repeatedly say, 

M in the situation in which we then were.” No feeling of re¬ 
publicanism is perceived in their addresses; none in their 
public acts. Nothing of the kind was openly avowed by any 
of their leading men ; and the individuals who did occasion¬ 
ally hint at such an event, were regarded as ultras; who, 
however correct in theory, held dangerous and impracticable 
doctrines: and these were the national feelings up to the 
very eve of the declaration of independence ; just before 
which a change in the whole public sentiment was effected by 
the powerful pen of Thomas Paine, in his “ Common Sense ;” 
before which publication the only object avowed , even by the 
great men of the age, and seriously sought after by the rest of 
the people, was to be placed in the situation of 1763 ; to be 
restored to royal favor, and to enjoy their old British privileges 
(not rights). 

In 1764 commenced the British and colonial troubles. Mr. 
George Grenville had then become minister in Britain. He 
proposed to raise a revenue in the American colonies for the 
exclusive use of the British treasury. This was, of course, 
based upon the late expense of the war, borne by Great Brit¬ 
ain, and in consonance with the scheme before noted, of future 
remuneration to the mother-country. About the same time 
that this measure was talked of, other obnoxious acts were 
attempted. In Massachusetts, the governor published in sup¬ 
port of the ministry, and attempted to establish a religious 
test, by giving offices only to episcopalians: on which ocoa 
sion the people sent agents to England. On March 10, 1764, 
the stamp act was declared (not acted upon) ; which made 1 
certain transactions unlawful if not recorded on stamped 
paper, paid for as a tax. Against this Virginia led the way 
by petition and remonstrance ; Massachusetts passed legisla¬ 
tive censures ; and these two states took the lead in the 
whole of the preliminary contests and revolutionary war. The 
memorials were not received by parliament; but the parties 
were suffered to be heard by council. Dr. Franklin at this 
time was agent for Massachusetts. In 1765 the stamp act 
passed, and Boston went into mourning ; manifested great 
public spirit; and her merchants agreed to import no goods 


CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 39 

till the unjust act should be repealed ; while the lower classes 
committed some acts of violence. In Virginia a legislative 
action was had on it. Patrick Henry, then a young man, and 
scarcely acquainted with the rules of the assembly, waited for 
the action of some of the elder legislators ; but finding them 
silent, or disposed to conciliate, he rose in his place, and pro¬ 
posed a series of resolutions, denouncing the stamp act as 
violations of their ancient charters, and destructive of British 
and American freedom, and disclaiming any other authority 
to enforce taxes than a general assembly. These resolutions, 
after considerable debate, were admitted, and served as a 
precedent for other states. The biographer of Patrick Henry, 
the late Mr. Wirt, relates, that after Mr, Henry’s death, a 
sealed paper was found, directed to be read only when he had 
ceased to live. This paper contained the resolutions referred 
to, with remarks of Mr. Henry in his own handwriting. 
He observes : “ The resolutions passed with a small major¬ 
ity ; but the alarm spread throughout America. The minis¬ 
terial party were overwhelmed: the great point of resistance 
to British taxation was universally established in the colo¬ 
nies. This brought on the war, which finally separated the 
two countries.” 

In every chain of events there are some links of more im¬ 
portance than others ; nay, essential to that chain. It is evi¬ 
dent that Patrick Henry thought so of these resolutions: it is 
equally evident that he himself looked forward to a separation 
of the two countries, and regarded these resolutions as im¬ 
portant to that object ; yet on the face of them they only 
claim what every Briton claims, and independence and repub¬ 
licanism are not even hinted. The time had not yet come 
for such sentiments to be broached $ nor how it was to come 
was not then known, either to Patrick Henry or to any other 
patriot. The man who was destined to convert a nation by 
a few pages of “common sense,” was then in obscurity ; had 
just resigned staymaking for a paltry office in the English 
excise, *and had never published an article : but the resolutions 
of Patrick Henry contributed to the crisis which brought Mr. 
Paine forward as an author ; and as such we regard him as a 


40 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


chief link, too, in the chain of events which produced and 
consummated the revolution. 

In this same year, 1765, one James Otis, in Massachusetts, 
proposed a congress to be held in New York. A committee 
was formed to arrange this. South Carolina was the first to 
yield to the suggestion. The various governors, alarmed, 
prorogued the assemblies of Virginia, North Carolina, and 
Georgia : but committees of correspondence were established 
in each state ; and thus the nucleus of organized resistance 
was formed. On the day the stamp act was to take effect, 
Boston had the bells tolled ; public meetings were held, and 
fast days appointed. Violence in some cases was used : and 
to wear homespun became respectable, as marking national 
principle. The violent opposition to the stamp act induced 
inquiry in London. Franklin was examined at the bar of the 
house; and the whigs generally washed the repeal of the ob¬ 
noxious stamp act. In the house of lords it is remarkable, 
that the bishops first recommended force to be used to the 
Americans ; and the king did not wish the repeal of the act. 
The law was, however, repealed ; and such were the feelings 
of the American people, that they manifested the most rap¬ 
turous joy; and actually adulated the British government for 
not doing them so great an injustice as to impose on them 
taxes without representation. In Virginia a s/ff/we was voted 
to the king. From Massachusetts votes of thanks were agreed 
upon to the Duke of Grafton and Mr. Pitt; while Boston, and 
other parts of the continent, illuminated ; and rejoicings w^ere 
everywhere heard. Well might Thomas Paine say, as he 
afterward did, in the “Crisis, No. VII.:” “I found the dispo¬ 
sition of the people such, that they might be led by a thread 
and governed by a reed. Their attachment to Britain w^as 
obstinate ; and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak 
against it. They disliked the ministry, but they esteemed the 
nation. Their ideas of grievance operated without resent- 
* ment; and their single object was reconciliation .” 

The foolish ministers again opened the w T ound by wishing 
the states to remunerate those who had suffered by the acts 
of violence in resisting the stamp act. And in 1767, when 
Mr. Pitt, or Lord Chatham, had again come into power, but 


CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


41 


during his illness, an act was passed, “ to restrain the legisla¬ 
tive power in New York and soon after an act of perfidy 
awakened the jealousy and anger of the people ; for some 
troops landed in Boston, allegingthey were driven in precisely 
to that port by stress of weather. And in the same year, one 
Charles Townsend, in the English parliament, publicly an¬ 
nounced a plan for taxing the Americans by the English par¬ 
liament, vnthout giving them offence ; and this plan, thus 
foolishly announced, consisted in imposing a duty on glass, 
paint, tea, and paper, to be imported into the colonies ; and 
to assist this notable scheme, a board of admiralty was impos¬ 
ed on the colonies, to be paid by the natives, and whose 
operations cramped the colonies for the supposed benefit of 
the mother-country. These measures roused the people, and 
again awaked the worst feelings. Boston took the lead, 
closely followed by other parts. The mob committed acts of 
violence ; while the better sort were loud in petitioning and 
remonstrating. Lord Chatham, who had been ill, resigned ; 
Townsend died ; and Lord North succeeded as English chan¬ 
cellor of the exchequer, and afterward as prime minister : and 
to his perseverance in a wrong course, for the sake of consist¬ 
ency, England lost her colonies and America gained her in¬ 
dependence. This, without merit to Lord North, is another 
important link in the chain which led to independence. 

In this year the spirit of resistance was fostered by some 
tolerable essays from one John Dickenson, Esq., published in 
a Philadelphia paper ; while the seizing of Hancock’s sloop 
“ Liberty,” for smuggling, furnished the Bostonians the sub¬ 
ject of a riot. To quell this, the governor, Bernard, sent for 
troops; and the respectable body of the people, at a large 
public meeting held at Faneuil Hall, proposed arming in fear 
of French invasion. This was undoubtedly a justifiable ruse 
to meet the duplicity of the English ministers, whose troops 
landed by alleged stress of weather at Boston : it shows, too, 
that the Bostonians meant to fight for their liberty ; though 
independence was never named, nor evidently scarcely con¬ 
ceived of, except by a very few. 

In 1769, Lord North, the English minister, obtained a good 
support both in the house of commons and in the f ouse of 

6 


4*2 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


lords; and he determined to maintain the supremacy of the 
English government in all things; and to prevent the effects 
of native juries , proposed trying civil officers, charged with 
murder or violence in the colonies, in support of the British 
government, in England. On this occasion all the ports 
agreed to suspend importations till this grievance should he 
removed. 

In 1769, the opposition to the arbitrary measures of the 
British government w r as so great in the colonies, and so pow¬ 
erful the effect of the non-importation agreement, that the 
ministers agreed to discontinue all the duties, except that on 
tea ; thus perseveringly preserving the principle of taxation 
without representation, while they gave up the greater part 
of the profit. The war, therefore, that succeeded was a war 
on principle , not amount, of taxation. On this occasion, 
Lord Chatham, who had partially recovered from his late ill¬ 
ness, violently opposed the ministers. During this and the 
following year, the spirit of resistance increased, for the 
Americans were not to be duped by the repeal of taxes, while 
the principle or right of taxation was maintained. In Boston, 
where the presence of the soldiers was obnoxious, riots en¬ 
sued; individual quarrels between soldiers and citizens be¬ 
came party quarrels; and three of the soldiers were killed by 
the ropemakers. In New York, the people erected liberty- 
poles, which the soldiers cut down. But the most powerful 
incitement to opposition came from the pen of McDougal, a 
Scotchman, who boldly charged the assembly with betraying 
the city and colony of New York, because they had discour¬ 
aged the people and sanctioned the governor and the troops ; 
not from attachment, but the necessity of supporting the 
laws. McDougal was thrown into prison, where he remained 
three months, and then dismissed without a trial. This fact 
shows the force of his writings, and we shall afterward find 
this man rendering essential service, for which the notoriety 
given him by this persecution qualified him. 

In 1771, Rhode Island showed considerable excitement 
Philadelphia refused to receive the taxed tea; New York and 
other places followed, and the vessels returned. But in Bos¬ 
ton, where a quantity was assigned, some of the people 


CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. i 3 

dressed like Indians boarded the ships and threw three hun« 
dred and forty-two chests of tea into the sea. Yet, in this 
act, they only sought the liberties which the charters granted 
them ; and in all their requests, they simply asked to be re¬ 
stored to the situation they were in in 1763. In all this vio¬ 
lence the word independence was never pronounced. 

In 1774, North, enraged at the conduct of the Bostonians, 
procured bills, closing their harbor and destroying their an¬ 
cient charter and constitution ; thus punishing a whole peo¬ 
ple and people unborn for the specific acts of some. Against 
this Lord Chatham protests j and Burke the Irish orator made 
a brilliant speech. The career of the latter is identified 
with Paine ; for he afterward became a pensioner to the 
British government, and apologist for the Bourbon family, 
and the opponent of the French revolution, and his work on 
this subject produced Paine’s celebrated “Rights of Man.” 
Boston, when her harbors were about to be closed, appealed 
to other cities and states. Virginia, ever ready and firm in 
the cause of opposition to arbitrary measures, appointed 
through her legislature the day for closing Boston harbor 
(1st of June, 1774), as a day of solemn fasting ; a measure 
always efficacious, for it enlists religious enthusiasm, and 
presents to the opponent a ghostly power, of immense force, 
which feels no blows. Cromwell, Mahomet, and Thomas a 
Becket, perfectly understood these tactics, and succeeded in 
their use. The governor dissolved the house in May, but 
the members formed an association, before even they had 
heard from Boston. They published, too, a manifesto, rec¬ 
ommending that no East India produce be used, except salt¬ 
petre and spice. At New York, the parties were nearly 
equal; but the popularity of M‘Dougal, the Scotchman be¬ 
fore noticed, for his spirited writings, gave him a considera¬ 
ble influence, well supported as he was by Captain Sears. 
M‘Dougal had both the honor to propose a second congress, 
the influence to get a committee for that purpose, and the ad¬ 
dress to carry this out, together with standing local commit¬ 
tees : and this arrangement lasted till the declaration of 
independence. The various members to this congress, are 
the distinguished men, whose names are familiar to us as fa- 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


u 

thers of the revolution. This congress was generally ap¬ 
pointed by the legislatures, and made legal, to effect which 
there were some previous secret meetings in Massachusetts. 
A committee had been appointed on the state of the province, 
which consisted of Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, John 
Hancock, I. Cutting, Robert Treat Paine, and others. Before 
they reported they requested the doors might be shut; and 
then they proceeded to recommend a congress and an imme¬ 
diate decision. A spy of the governor affected a bowel com¬ 
plaint, and was suffered to depart; but neither he, nor the 
governor, nor his agent, was suffered to enter till the congress 
was confirmed ; and the governor’s dissolution of the assem¬ 
bly, made on tbe outside, was neither heard nor regarded. 
Virginia appointed Washington, Patrick Henry, &c., and de¬ 
clared herself ready to support Boston, but at the same time 
carefully instructed her delegates not to break with Britain ; 
to support only their British, privileges , or what they claimed 
as the rights of Englishmen. At this period, Rhode Island 
issued a motto, now familiar to our ears, but which at the same 
time is degraded by party politics, “United, we stand — divi¬ 
ded, we fall.” A motto, a song, a toast, or a pamphlet, will 
sometimes produce a unanimity, which much greater efforts 
have failed in. Georgia, of all the states, sent no deputies 
to this congress; but she, too, soon after, when the danger 
had not decreased, joined the union. 

It should be remembered, that about this time, Mr. Thom¬ 
as Paine, by the advice of Dr. Franklin, then in England, was 
embarking for North America. It is evident that Franklin 
had a design of benefiting his country by this recommenda¬ 
tion, in the precise way in which Paine effected it ; for 
Franklin soon followed Paine, and almost immediately offered 
to put into his hands the materials for the eventful history of 
the times. Paine at that time was actually engaged on his 
“ Common Sense,” and soon after sent him the first copy to 
surprise him by showing that he had anticipated his designs 
and wishes. These events throw a sort of halo about the 
characters of these two men, highly respectable to both. 
When Franklin knew Mr. Paine, he was in London, ruined in 
his fortune and prospects ; of no literary reputation, but for 


FRANKLIN AND PAINE. 


45 


one pamphlet, in which he pleaded the unpopular cause of 
the excisemen. He had then no distinguished acquaintances, 
to whom he was indebted for an introduction. Franklin was 
at this time a doctor, distinguished for his learning, philoso¬ 
phy, and above all for his common sense. He was an old 
mar., pithy and sententious, acquainted with the manner of 
addressing the people, himself an author (and authors are 
tenacious), yet he becomes the friend of Paine, advises him 
to come to this country, gives him letters which procure him 
at once a literary engagement, and on his return almost im¬ 
mediately offers to put in his hands the materials for the his¬ 
tory of the times ; while Paine was but a foreigner of a few 
months standing. What, then, are our conclusions, but that 
Franklin had the genius to discover Paine’s peculiar tact and 
talents, and that he had the address to second Paine’s wishes 
in coming to this country, without acquainting Paine with 
all his motives, and thus indirectly to effect what he himself 
wished 1 But what means had Franklin to know Paine 1 
His pamphlet on the excise must have been the only source 
by which his qualities as a writer could be known; but that 
pamphlet is characteristic, and Franklin’s conclusion must 
have been correct that he who could employ such good sense, 
in so powerful a manner, on such a bad subject, could, on a 
better subject, effect much. Franklin must, too, have discov¬ 
ered the sound and correct judgment of Paine, by c.onversa 
tions, and he must have believed in the correctness of his 
principles and extent of his knowledge, before he could think 
of giving into his hands what his own countrymen thought 
himself (Franklin) so capable of. This conduct of Franklin, 
in preferring Paine to himself for this important object, while 
it reflects the greatest credit upon Paine’s natural abilities, 
acquisitions, and moral virtues, redounds also to Franklin’s 
glory. It is great men only that can afford to be generous ; 
and Franklin in this preference marks a greatness of character, 
which never forsook him: while it marks also the calumni¬ 
ators of Paine, those who have attempted to present him to 
the public as a demoralized, vulgar, and illiterate man, as base 
unprincipled slanderers, whose calumnies are not the less 
venomous for proceeding frequently from reverend persons. 


16 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


While Mr. Paine was preparing to leave his country, and 
during his voyage, events were ripening the crisis which 
should render his services valuable. Boston was distressed 
by a blockade ; while the men, assisted even by the women, 
exercised themselves in arms. The governor of Boston had 
removed to Salem; but the spirit of the people brought 
him back. His proclamations availed nothing. Meetings 
were held : and we cannot but observe the imperfect notions 
of political justice and civil rights, when among their com¬ 
plaints, they charge on the British government as a crime 
their doing a portion of justice to the catholics of Canada : 
such is the force of prejudice, religious instruction, and early 
impressions. The Bostonians were now indeed cruelly treat¬ 
ed ; but they were upheld by all the states ; and the congress 
was now assembled (the latter part of September, 1774): 
Patrick Henry first spoke, and gave a manly tone to the 
meeting: events had presented the subject; it was not a 
matter of choice. The first question necessarily was : “ Shall 
we make common cause with Boston 1” and after a month’s 
delay, or of protracted discussions, the congress (on Oct. 6, 
1774) resolved upon supporting Boston ; still, however, pray¬ 
ing a reconciliation. In their resolutions they declare them¬ 
selves his majesty’s loyal subjects: they declare they are 
Englishmen, and want only Englishmen’s rights: and they 
especially demand to be restored to the situation they were in 
in 1763 ; that is, after the French war, in which the French 
lost Canada, and before Sir George Grenville’s stamp act. 
After a variety of useful resolutions, and a declaration not to 
support the slave-trade, the formation of committees, and the 
establishment of provincial congresses, they dissolved; but 
resolved to meet again in May, 1775, in Philadelphia. This 
then was not a dissolution, but an adjournment of the con¬ 
gress, which afterward declared for independence. At this 
time Thomas Paine must have embarked from England ; for 
he arrived at Philadelphia in the winter of 1774. The local 
congress formed two committees: one of safety, which pro¬ 
vided a militia ; and the other a committee of supplies, which 
provided for them, and other necessary expenses. A new* 
arliament in England was much divided. The king, in his 


THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 


4*1 


speech, was unfavorable to the colonies : Lord Chatham, and 
the greatest men in the ministry, in favor of them : while 
Lord North still attempted to intimidate the people by unjust 
acts. He proposed a bill to restrict the people of New Eng¬ 
land from fishing; and performed other irritating acts of 
tyranny. In the colonies the military seized on several col¬ 
lections of arms and stores : but the militia being sanctioned 
by the local congresses, retaliated ; as these assemblies de¬ 
clared the supplies collected in forts necessary for the safety 
of the state : thus the people of Province, in New Hampshire, 
took the stores from Forts William and Maria. In Virginia 
Patrick Henry trained a company. At this period Paine had 
arrived, and was engaged on various periodicals by Mr. Aitkin, 
of Philadelphia ; in which situation he necessarily became 
acquainted with the local politics ; while, from his recent 
arrival, he knew also public feeling in Great Britain : and 
thus he was becoming matured for what he afterward so well 
effected. Dr. Franklin had, too, returned to the colonies, and 
took the place of another deputy in Congress ; Thomas Jef¬ 
ferson, likewise, took the place of another member: and thus 
events gradually led on the cause of independence; while not 
a word on the subject was uttered, even by those who wished 
it; for they had no hopes of seeing the people unanimous, 
and really expected that any proposition of the kind would 
subdivide those struggling against the tyranny of the British 
government. 

In April, 1775, an important event occurred. General Gage 
marched a few troops to Concord to seize some military 
stores. The people knew his design, and resolved on oppo¬ 
sition. At Lexington a few militia were drawn up to watch 
his motions, but with strict orders not to molest him. These 
General Gage ordered to disperse ; and after repeating his 
orders, fired on the body, and killed eight militiamen. The 
militia dispersed ; but some of them returned the fire. The 
British colonel (Smith) now moved on to Concord ; during 
which time the militia assembled in great numbers, resolved 
to harass the troops on their return. The stores were re¬ 
moved from Concord, except a little flour, which Col. Smith 
destroyed, and then commenced a retreat; but the Britisn 


48 


LIFE OF THOMAS TAIIS'E. 


were met at every pass, and annoyed by secret foes along 
the whole road ; and it is probable that the whole force of 
nine hundred men would have been destroyed, had not Lord 
Percy brought a re-enforcement to his rescue. In Virginia, 
about the same time, the king’s troops seized on a quantity 
of powder; but being pursued by Patrick Henry, who sud¬ 
denly raised five thousand men, the value, of the powder was 
recovered. In Massachusetts an army was immediately rais¬ 
ed, and the command given to Putnam, who had fought in the 
Canada war. This man, who was one of the best revolution¬ 
ary generals, had to lay by his leather apron when he became 
a general. The provincial troops now seized on the military 
stores wherever they could ; and thus the example of the 
king’s troops afforded the first means of getting supplies. In 
this year Colonel Ethan Allen and Arnold not only took the 
stores, but the fort of Ticonderoga, by surprise. The British 
at this time were commanded by Howe, Clinton, and Bur- 
goyne. An offer of pardon was made to those who would lay 
down their arms, excepting Samuel Adams and Hancock: 
this last, as a compliment to the distinction shown him by the 
British, was made president of the congress : but he was more 
remarkable for his wealth and courage than abilities. On the 
15th of June, Washington received the chief command: he 
declined a salary, and only wished his expenses paid. 

On the 16th of June, General Putnam ordered Colonel Pres¬ 
cott to take possession of Bunker’s hill, with a thousand men. 
By some mistake Breed’s hill was occupied instead ; and the 
general himself assisted in throwing up a breastwork during 
the night. To dispossess the Americans of this post, the fa¬ 
mous battle of Bunker’s hill was fought; which, though lost 
by the Americans, was so honorable to them, that it served 
as a watchword during the war, and as a grateful monument 
since. The men accustomed to the rifle repeatedly repulsed 
the enemy by reserving their fire till the approaching column 
was very near, and offered marks to be shot at. This coolness 
was altogether unexpected from raw troops ; and could it 
have been exercised in all subsequent engagements, the war 
which succeeded would have been of short duration. In the 
summer of 1775, an Irish regiment arrived to the assistance 


CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


49 

of the Americans; but as they were destitute of both arms 
and provisions, they were not at first very useful to the cause 
they came to serve. In July, Georgia sent deputies to con¬ 
gress ; and in the same month congress published a declara¬ 
tion, earnestly desiring a reconciliation with Britain : they for 
warded also a most humble petition to the king. The language 
of this petition is more humiliating than either the circum¬ 
stances required, or the spirit of the people could suggest; and 
it was evidently drawn up to satisfy that class of people who 
always hope for the best; and who, on this occasion, hoped to 
obtain by begging, what others knew very well could only be 
obtained by courage. But these good meaning men would 
have been lost to the party had their wishes not been attend¬ 
ed to. The action on this petition was afterward of great im¬ 
portance. In the meantime the congress did not trust to 
petitioning: they did something more substantial ; they train¬ 
ed riflemen. In the south twelve volunteers travelled to 
Florida, and seized a vessel with fifteen thousand pounds of 
gunpowder in it ; and giving the captain bills on congress, 
brought it off. In the south Lord Dunmore proposed to liber¬ 
ate the slaves, and arm them against their masters ; but he 
either could not, or did not effect much in that way. In the 
north, an expedition was undertaken to Canada. St. John 
and Montreal were taken by Montgomery ; but Colonel Allen 
was made prisoner, Montgomery was killed, and Arnold had 
his leg broken: the expedition was not finally successful. 
Letters of marque were also granted. On the other side, 
Lord Dunmore burned Norfolk, and threatened other places. 
At this period, late in the year 1775, Paine was engaged on 
his “ Common Sense.” About January, 1776, accounts were 
received that the petition forwarded to the king, from which 
so much was hoped by a part of the people, had been reject¬ 
ed ; and no answer was deigned in reply. The same oppor¬ 
tunities brought accounts of foreign troops (Hessians) being 
engaged to combat the colonies; and that a large armament 
was coming out. Mr. Penn had indeed been examined at the 
bar of the house of commons ; and his examination proved 
that the colonists had then no thoughts of independence. 
They were now operated on by anger and fear: anger at the 

7 


50 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


contemptuous treatment of their petition; and fear for the 
consequences of resistance, and at the force about to he 
brought against them. Yet none talked of independence, but 
a few of no weight in society ; as none of the leaders would 
risk their popularity in supporting what appeared hopeless: 
yet Jefferson, Franklin, Patrick Henry, and others, evidently 
wished independence: but this could only be supported by 
the unanimity of the body of the people ; and these did not 
dare to dream of it. At this period of excitement, anger, and 
fear, Paine published his “ Common Sense 5 ” and boldly pro¬ 
posed independence, as the best means to get out of the diffi¬ 
culties into which they had now plunged ; and as an object 
alone worth fighting for. This pamphlet effected wonders: 
it overcame difficulties apparently insurmountable, for it re¬ 
moved prejudices, generally a hopeless task : it convinced 
the people that the British constitution was not the best that 
could be , and that a government of kings, lords, and commons, 
might not be the essence of all that is excellent in each \ but 
that the union might retain much that was bad in each : he 
satisfied the people of the disadvantages of carrying on 
war with a government whose authority was acknowledged : 
and he opened to them the resources within their power, and 
hinted at the possibility of getting foreign help as an indepen¬ 
dent nation. He produced, what his writings generally did 
produce, a change of opinion. The pamphlet was read from 
north to south ; everybody talked about it; and each seemed 
surprised that he had not had the same thoughts, so clear did 
the propositions appear as explained in “Common Sense.” 
The boldness of the language, indeed, alarmed those who are 
in the habit of understanding for other people: they had no 
objection to it themselves, but they thought the people not 
yet prepared for such opinions ; and some ludicrous scenes 
occurred. The people, indeed, were not prepared : they read 
first from curiosity, and then became convinced. Paine abso¬ 
lutely produced the events he sought. He wanted a declara¬ 
tion of independence, and he produced the wish for it. Clio 
Hickman observes, in a note on Cheetharn’s life of Paine, 
that— 


EFFECTS OF “COMMON SENSE.” 51 

“ When ‘ Common Sense’ arrived at Albany the convention 
of New York was in session : General Scott, a leading mem¬ 
ber, alarmed at the boldness and novelty of its arguments, 
mentioned his fears to several of his distinguished colleagues, 
and suggested a private meeting in the evening for the purpose 
of writing an answer. They accordingly met, and Mr. 
McKesson read the pamphlet through. At first it was deemed 
both necessary and expedient to answer it immediately, but 
casting about for the necessary arguments they concluded to 
adjourn and meet again. In a few evenings they assembled, 
but so rapid was the change of opinion in the colonies at 
large in favor of independence, that they ultimately agreed 
not to oppose it.” 

When Mr. Paine saw the avidity with which his book was 
read, as he had not published for interest but principle, he 
generously gave the copyright to every state. His own ob¬ 
servations on the subject are these :— 

“Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connect¬ 
ed that the world from being so often deceived has a right to 
be suspicious of public characters. But with regard to my¬ 
self, I am perfectly easy on this head. I did not at my first 
setting out in public life, nearly seventeen years ago, turn my 
thoughts to subjects of government from motives of interest; 
and my conduct from that moment to this proves the fact. I 
saw an opportunity in which I thought I could do some good, 
and I followed exactly what my heart dictated. I neither read 
books, nor studied other people’s opinions—I thought for 
myself. The case was this :— 

During the suspension of the old government in America, 
both prior to and at the breaking out of hostilities, I was 
struck with the order and decorum with which everything 
was conducted, and impressed with the idea that a little more 
than what society naturally performed was all the government 
that was necessary. On these principles I published the pam¬ 
phlet ‘Common Sense.’ 

The success it met with was beyond anything since the in¬ 
vention of printing. I gave the copyright up to every state 
in the Union, and the demand run to not less than one hun¬ 
dred thousand copies, and I continued the subject under the 
title of ‘ American Crisis,’ till the complete establishment of 
the American revolution. ’ 

The disinterested conduct of Mr. Paine, considering the 
•normous quantity that was sold, is a remarkable trait in his 
character, and one which should excite in the breast of every 


52 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


American citizen a lively sense of gratitude. Paine, at thi3 
time, was yet a poor man. It would have been perfectly hon¬ 
orable in him to take the ordinary profit. That profit on 
“ Common Sense” alone must have been enormously large, and 
a large profit could have been made on each number of the “Cri¬ 
sis and Paine, without the slightest imputation on his char¬ 
acter, could have realized a handsome fortune, while he ren¬ 
dered a most important service to his adopted country. We 
know of no example of the kind ; some rich men publish for 
principle, but we know of no poor man, w’ho had the tempta 
tion of popularity to anything like the extent which Mr. 
Paine enjoyed by this publication, who gave to the public his 
copyright. He stands, therefore, alone, as a remarkable in¬ 
stance of great generosity and public spirit. Mr. Paine w r as 
never an extravagant man. While in public life, and in the 
enjoyment of a moderate competency, he lived like a gentle¬ 
man in this country, in England, and in France : but when in 
retirement, both in France and in this country, at a late peri¬ 
od of his life, when many of his former friends avoided an 
intimacy for fear of the unpopularity of his religious opinions, 
he then evidently became careless of appearances, and, though 
always well clothed, comfortably lodged, and possessed of the 
comforts of life, yet, in his old age, his style of living was 
mean. Yet what can we say of the meanness of a man, who 
thus nobly gives up thousands, glorying in the act, and per¬ 
severing in it, in all his successive political and theological 
publications'! The only answer is that he had not an ex¬ 
travagant taste, and this enabled him to be generous ; while 
this taste, at variance with the taste of others in equal cir¬ 
cumstances, will necessarily appear parsimonious. Had 
Paine been less parsimonious, he would probably have been 
less generous. His capability of living on a little, evidently 
suggested the idea that great riches were unnecessary in a 
private situation. 

“ The time was now arrived,” says Sherwin, “ when our 
author tvas to take an active as well as a decisive part in pub¬ 
lic affairs. The declaration of independence had removed 
the scene of political warfare from the closet to the camp, 
and it was now become necessary to try the strength of public 


53 


paine’s “common sense.” 

patriotism by bringing it into the field of military operations. 
Warlike preparations were immediately set on foot by the 
Americans. Many individuals of respectability volunteered 
their services in support of their country’s freedom, and 
among the foremost of them was Mr. Paine. In this capaci¬ 
ty he was introduced to the friendship of the Marquis de la 
Fayette, who was likewise serving as a volunteer in the Amer¬ 
ican army. 1 lie officers treated our author with every possi¬ 
ble mark of respect ; at their tables he was hailed as a wel¬ 
come guest, and General Washington himself neglected no 
opportunity of showing the high opinion he entertained of 
his talents and integrity.” 

Cheetham, in spite of his prejudices, gives the following 
brief account of Paine’s services at this time :— 

“When ‘Common Sense’ was written, the friends of inde¬ 
pendence were not republicans. Paine’s invectives against 
monarchy were intended against the monarchy of England, 
rather than against monarchy in general, and they were pop¬ 
ular in the degree to which the measures and designs of the 
British cabinet were odious. The question, when no alterna¬ 
tive but colonial vassalage or national independence presented 
itself, was one merely of independence, for, as Mr. Adams 
truly remarked, the colonists had no wish but for the ‘imme¬ 
morial liberties of their ancestors.’ To this may be added 
the observation of Dr. Franklin, that they could not even 
hope for a government under which they could enjoy liberties 
more precious. 

On the fourth of July, 1776, congress declared the colonies 
‘free and independent states,’ which was as soon after the 
publication of ‘Common Sense,’Paine remarks, ‘as the work 
could spread through such an extensive country.’ 

Paine now accompanied the army of independence as a sort 
of itinerant writer, of which his pen was an appendage almost 
as necessary and formidable as its cannon. Having no prop¬ 
erty, he fared as the army fared, and at the same expense, but 
to what mess he was attached I have not been able to learn, 
although, from what I hear and know, it must, I think, though 
he was sometimes admitted into higher company, have been 
a subaltern one. When the colonists drooped he revived 
them with a ‘Crisis.’ The first of these numbers he publish¬ 
ed early in December, 1776. The object of it was good, the 
method excellent, and the language suited to the depressed 
spirits of the army, of public bodies, and of private citizens, 
cheering. Washington, defeated on Long Island, had retreat¬ 
ed to New York, and been driven with great loss from Forts 
Washington and Lee. The gallant little army, overwhelmed 


54 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


with a rapid succession of misfortunes, was dwindling away, 
and all seemed to be over with the cause, when scarcely a 
blow had been struck. ‘These,’ said the ‘Crisis,’ ‘are the 
times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sun¬ 
shine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his 
country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and 
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily 
conquered ; yet we have this consolation with us, that the 
harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph : what we 
obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly.’ 

The number was read in the camp, to every corporal’s 
guard, and in the army and out of it had more than the in¬ 
tended effect. The convention of New York, reduced by 
dispersion occasioned by alarm, to nine members, was rallied 
and reanimated. Militiamen, who, already tired of the war, 
were straggling from the army, returned. Hope succeeded 
to despair, cheerfulness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. 
To the confidence which it inspired may be attributed much 
of the brilliant little affair which in the same month followed 
at Trenton.” 

The impression which this first number of the “ Crisis” made 
on the public mind, is evident by the very first sentence being 
handed down already to two generations, as a sort of watch¬ 
word : “ These are the times that try men’s souls yet the 
dastardly enmity to Paine has suppressed the author. Thou¬ 
sands use this expression, while individuals only know the 
origin of it. Yet the fact of this expression being thus hand¬ 
ed down even in spite of the personal prejudices against the 
man, clearly shows the impression this well-timed pamphlet 
must have made on the nation. The extract we have given 
scarcely shows the facts : the American army was dispirited j 
they were even brought into contempt by their unsoldierlike 
appearance in comparison to the well-clothed, well-fed regu¬ 
lars, preceded by elegant bands of music. The militia whose 
time was up were returning in disgust; the army appeared 
disbanded. It was Paine’s task to reinstate it, to place honor 
where it was deserved, and to convert the despairing, degra¬ 
ded, because despised soldier, into a warm patriot, and to con¬ 
vert a feeling of scorn into one of encouragement; and this 
task Paine admirably performed. 

“The affair of Trenton elevating American confidence,” as 
Cheetham remarks, “and breathing caution into the British 


SECRETARY TO THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. 


55 


army, Paine, in January, 1777, congratulated the ‘free and in¬ 
dependent states’in a second number of the‘Crisis.’ It is 
addressed to Lord Howe, and ridicules his proclamation, 
‘ commanding all congresses, committees, &c., to desist and 
cease from their treasonable doings.’ Against the king and 
his purposes, it is full of invective, but of a sort rather popu¬ 
lar than, exquisite. Fortunately for the United States the Brit¬ 
ish commander-in-chief dealt more in impotent proclamations 
than in the efficacy of arms. Washington’s retreat to Tren¬ 
ton was a compulsive one. He had not from choice and by 
military skill drawn the Hessians into the toil in which they 
were ensnared. I do not believe that even a number of the 
‘ Crisis’ could have saved the American army and cause from 
annihilation, if Howe had been an active and persevering, an 
enlightened and energetic commander. Washington’s pa¬ 
tience and care, his admirable coolness and prudence, although 
often, in the course of t'he war, provoked to battle by a thou¬ 
sand irritating circumstances, by internal faction, and by 
British sneers, saved America to freedom; while the idle dis¬ 
sipation of Howe, his devotion to licentious pleasures, his un- 
martial spirit and conduct, lost it to the crown. 

On the nineteenth of April, 1777, he published, at Philadel¬ 
phia, the third number of the ‘ Crisis.’ As there had been no 
military operations from the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, 
it was devoted to an examination of occurrences since the dec¬ 
laration of independence, and to a repetition of the arguments 
which he had employed in ‘ Common Sense’ in favor of inde¬ 
pendence.” 

At this time, or rather on the 17th of April, Mr. Paine was 
elected by congress secretary to the committee for foreign 
affairs. No man could be more suitable for this situation : 
and ably did he serve it. The duties of his office correspond¬ 
ed with that of the English secretary for foreign affairs. He 
stood in the same relation to the committee as that officer 
did to the cabinet. All foreign communications were address¬ 
ed to Mr. Paine, and by him perused, and then laid before the 
committee by whose instructions he acted. In his foreign 
communications he assumed the same title which the British 
minister did who performed the same task. On this subject 
Cheetham is very spiteful, and supposes he did so from van¬ 
ity ; and insidiously mentions the amount of the paltry salary 
which Mr. Paine received, as a sort of presumptuous evidence 
that he ought not, with such a salary, to call himself “ secre¬ 
tary for foreign affairs.” But the fact is, it was policy in 


56 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


Mr. Paine to do so : he wrote then in the style of an equal, 
and assumed a proper dignity useful to his adopted country. 

In the early part of September, 1777, Sir William Howe and 
Cornwallis were pushing on the line of the Brandywine tow¬ 
ard Philadelphia ; and to satisfy the public mind, Washing¬ 
ton was obliged to risk a battle. He did so, and lost the 
battle ; but being ably assisted by La Fayette, and other French 
and Polish officers, he made good his retreat, without any 
very serious injury. On this occasion Paine published his 
fourth “ Crisis short, but admirably adapted to the purpose ; 
and the morale or confidence of the army increased, so that, 
could they have fought the battle over again, the soldiers 
would have done it. 

While Washington was engaged with Howe and Cornwallis 
near Philadelphia, General Gates was watching the movements 
of Burgoyne, descending the Hudson ; and fell upon him at 
Saratoga, where the militia simultaneously joined him ; and 
Burgoyne, weakened by his march, and disappointed in the 
junction of the New York army with him in this neighborhood, 
was surrounded, and obliged to surrender. Howe, aware of 
this, and not being able to bring Washington to a general en¬ 
gagement, became predatory in his warfare : on which occa¬ 
sion Paine brought out his fifth “ Crisis 5 ” which, as Sherwin 
remarks— 

Was published at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, March, 1778. 
It consists of a letter addressed to General Sir William Howe, 
and an ‘Address to the Inhabitants of America.’ The advantages 
gained by General Howe he considers of so trifling a nature, 
as rather to prove the impotence of his troops, than to show 
their ability to prosecute their object. He cites the retreat of 
the British as a confirmation of this conclusion. He ridicules, 
with considerable force, the vanity of attaching importance to 
titles, and the pretensions which Sir William had set forth to 
the esteem of the Americans. He is very severe on the mean 
and cowardly conduct of Sir William in distributing forged 
continental bills. If this charge were true, and the evidence 
given is too conclusive to admit of its being doubted, it is a 
most disgraceful circumstance to those employed in carrying 
on the war.* In the conduct of an army there are certain 

* The only parallel to this proceeding that I have ever heard of, is the con» 
duct of Pitt toward the French in 1795. It has been said that Mr. Pitt was the 
inventor of this cowardly species of warfare ; but this the reader will perceive to 


FORGED CONTINENTAL MONEY. 


57 


acts which we consider dishonorable, and which a commander 
who values his character will always be careful to prevent. 
These are not laid down by any law ; because, when countries 
are at war with each other, law is totally out of the question : 
they depend on the disposition of a general and the discipline 
of his troops. But of all the low, drivelling practices that 
were ever resorted to by an army to distress a people with 
whom it was at war, the project of forging their bills is the 
most despicable. It is in a moral sense what assassination is 
in a physical sense ; and ought never to be resorted to except 
as a measure of retaliation. It is, however, impossible to rep¬ 
robate the practice in stronger terms than Paine has done in 
the publication before us. ‘You, sir,’ says he, in the address 
to Sir William, ‘have abetted and patronised the forging and 
uttering counterfeit continental bills. In the same New York 
newspapers in which your own proclamation under your mas¬ 
ter’s authority was published, offering or pretending to offer 
pardon and protection to the inhabitants of these states, there 
were repeated advertisements of counterfeit money for sale ; 
and persons who have come officially from you, and under 
sanction of your flag, have been taken up in attempting to put 
them off. A conduct so basely mean in a public character is 
without precedent or pretence. Every nation on earth, 
whether friends or enemies, will join in condemning you. It 
is an incendiary war upon society, which nothing can excuse 
or palliate : an improvement upon beggarly villany ; and 
shows an inbred wretchedness of heart, made up between the 
venomous malignity of a serpent, and the spiteful imbecility 
of an inferior reptile.’ The severity of these reproaches finds 
an apology in the circumstances of the case ; for though the 
language is harsh, it is nevertheless just ; and the fault lies 
with the person who deserves, not with him who applies it. 

There, perhaps, is not any species of composition which, in 
a few years, becomes so dry and insipid as disquisitions upon 
the politics of the day ; and those writers who have been able 
to give to such a subject a permanent interest, must be allow¬ 
ed to possess talents of a superior description. The ability 
displayed by Paine in the productions before us, has conferred 
a lasting importance on events which, passing through the icy 
medium of distant history, would have met with but little 
attention. He makes us feel as well as see the objects he is 
writing upon ; and though in some instances he does not at¬ 
tempt to give his language that high polish of which it is sus¬ 
ceptible, yet we soon discover the intrinsic value of his senti¬ 
ments, and we respect the rough exterior as an evidence of the 


i>e an unfounded supposition. Not that I wish to deprive Mr. Pitt of any of the 
infamy of such an expedient. I merely mention it to show, that in one of his 
most dishonorable schemes he was no more than a common imitator. 


8 


58 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


author’s sincerity, while a multitude of graces would only 
tend to bring his motives into suspicion. 

The subsequent part of the letter to General Howe discov¬ 
ers a fund of thought, penetration, and feeling. Though 1 
intend to be as brief as possible in making extracts from works 
which cannot be properly appreciated unless they are perused 
entire, yet the following is so prophetically true, that I can¬ 
not resist the temptation of quoting it:— 

‘There is something in meanness which excites a species 
of resentment that never subsides; and something in cruelty 
which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred. 
Britain has filled up both these characters till no addition can 
be made, and hath not reputation left with us to obtain credit 
for the slightest promise. The will of God hath parted us ; 
and the deed is registered for eternity. When she shall be a 
spot scarcely visible among nations, America shall flourish, the 
favorite of Heaven, and the friend of mankind.’ 

If the implicit supporters of arbitrary power and orthodox 
despotism will not admit Paine to have prophesied from in¬ 
spiration, it is to be hoped they will allow him to possess the 
merit of sound judgment and rational reflection. At all events, 
his calumniators cannot deny that the foregoing prediction is 
fast verging toward its fulfilment. Our author concludes 
No. Y. with an address to the inhabitants of America. In this 
he exhorts them to fresh perseverance ; and, after an elaborate 
description of the situation of the respective armies, he closes 
by proposing a plan for recruiting the American forces. 

The sixth number of the ‘Crisis’ was published at Philadel¬ 
phia, in October, 1778. The subject is a letter to the earl of 
Carlisle, General Clinton, and William Eden, Esq., British 
commissioners at New York. These gentlemen, in opposition 
to all the dictates of reason and experience, had issued a 
proclamation, calling upon the rebellious Americans to renew 
their allegiance to the king of Great Britain, whom they pom¬ 
pously described as the ‘rightful sovereign’ of America. The 
treaty which had recently been concluded between America 
and France, appears to have been the principal cause of this 
fresh display of folly. The pains which the poor commis 
sioners were at to make themselves and their royal master 
appear ridiculous, were in strict conformity with the blunder¬ 
ing policy which had given rise to their appointment; and 
their promises and pardons, their flattery and threats, were 
alike unavailing. The government of England, instead of 
being looked upon as an affectionate parent, was now regard¬ 
ed as an unnatural monster, who had sought to strangle her 
infant offspring. Even those who at first had been the most 
zealous friends of reconciliation, were by this time deprived 
of all their long-cherished hopes ; for they clearly saw that a 


THE CRISIS-SILAS DEANE. 


59 


reunion with the British government would be the certain 
forerunner of the most abject slavery. The pretensions and 
offers of the commissioners were, therefore, either spurned as 
an insult to the people, or ridiculed as a silly display of ima¬ 
ginary power. And when to this state of things we add the 
previous capture of General Burgoyne, their situation becomes 
truly pitiable. With such materials to work upon, it is im¬ 
possible that a man of any ability would write ill; and we 
therefore need not wonder that they furnished Paine with the 
groundwork of one of the best numbers of the 1 Crisis.’ As 
an analysis of this production would not tend in any degree 
to do justice to the writer’s merits, I shall avoid making ex¬ 
tracts from this as well as the subsequent numbers ; recom¬ 
mending to the reader an attentive perusal of the whole, as 
the only mode of enabling himself to appreciate the talents, 
perseverance, and patriotism of the author. 

The seventh number of the ‘ Crisis’ was published at Phila¬ 
delphia, Nov. 21, 1778. It consists of a letter to the people 
of England. The object of this number appears to have dif¬ 
fered in some degree from that of its immediate predecessor: 
the one being written for the purpose of convincing the gov¬ 
ernment, and the other of proving to the people the improba¬ 
bility of subduing America. The delusive hopes with which 
the ministry had amused the nation, the disgrace which must 
attend the hitherto invincible armies of England, and the 
wickedness of any man in even wishing those armies to be 
successful, are exposed with an ability which must have been 
most severely felt by the enemies, and warmly applauded by 
the friends of independence. The nurnwr likewise contains 
some excellent reflections on the subject of national honor 
and the mischievous effects of national vanity. 

In January, 1779, our author resigned his situation of sec¬ 
retary for foreign affairs. This resignation was in conse¬ 
quence of a disagreement which had taken place between the 
congress and Mr. Paine, respecting a person of the name of 
Silas Deane. In the early part of the war, it appears that this 
man had been employed by the committee for foreign affairs 
as an agent in France, for the purpose of obtaining supplies, 
either as a loan from the French government, or, if he failed 
in this, to purchase them as regular merchandise. Without 
waiting the issue of his separate mission, he was soon after 
nominated with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee, who proceeded 
to the court of Louis for the same purpose. The French 
monarch, more perhaps from his hostility to the English gov¬ 
ernment, than from any attachment to the American cause, 
gladly acceded to the request; and the supplies were imme¬ 
diately furnished from the king’s arsenal. As France was 
then to all appearance upon amicable terms with England, a 
pledge was given by the American commissioners that the 


60 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


grant should remain a secret. The supplies were accordingly 
shipped in the name of a Mr. Beaumarchais, and consigned to 
an imaginary house in the United States. Deane, talcing ad¬ 
vantage of the secresy which had been promised by the com¬ 
missioners, presented a claim for compensation in behalf of 
himself and Beaumarchais; thinking, perhaps, that the audit¬ 
ing committee would prefer a compliance with his fraudulent 
demand, rather than expose their ally, the king of France, to 
a rupture with England. At first there appeared an inclina¬ 
tion to comply with his request ; and Mr. Paine, perceiving 
this, and knowing the circumstances of the case, resolved on 
laying the transaction before the public. He accordingly 
wrote for the newspapers several essays, under the title of 
‘ Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane’s Affairs.’ In 
these he exposed, without ceremony, the dishonest designs of 
Deane. The business, in consequence, soon became a subject 
of general conversation: the demand was rejected by the 
auditing committee, and Deane himself soon afterward ab¬ 
sconded to England. 

For this piece of service to the Americans our author was 
thanked and applauded by the body of the people ; but by this 
time a party had begun to form itself, whose principles, if not 
the reverse of independence, were the reverse of republicanism. 
These men, as individuals, had long envied the popularity of 
Mr. Paine, but from their want of means to check or control 
it, they had hitherto remained silent. An opportunity was now 
offered for venting their spleen. Mr. Paine, in expressing his 
indignation against the claims of Mr. Deane, had mentioned 
one or two circumstances that had come to his knowledge in 
consequence of his office ; a plan was immediately formed for 
depriving him of his situation ; and, accordingly, a motion 
w r as made by one of the members for an order to bring him 
before the congress. Mr. Paine readily attended ; and on 
being asked whether the articles in question were written by 
him, he replied that they were. He was then directed to 
withdraw. As soon as he had left the house, a member arose 
and moved: ‘That Thomas Paine be discharged from the 
office of secretary to the committee for foreign affairs but 
the motion was lost upon a division. Mr. Paine then wrote 
to congress, requesting that he might be heard in his defence, 
and Mr. Laurens made a motion for that purpose, which was 
negatived. The next day he sent in his resignation, conclu¬ 
ding with these words: ‘As I cannot, consistently with my 
character as a freeman, submit to be censured unheard ; there¬ 
fore, to preserve that character and maintain that right, I think 
it my duty to resign the office of secretary to the committee 
for foreign affairs ; and I do hereby resign the same.’ 

This conduct on the part of the congress may, in some de¬ 
gree, be attributed to a desire to quiet the fears of the French 


CLERK TO PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE. 


61 


ambassador, wno had become very dissatisfied in consequence 
of its being known to the world that the supplies were a pres¬ 
ent from his master. To silence his apprehensions, and pre¬ 
serve the friendship of the French court, they treated Paine 
with ingratitude. This they acknowledged at a future period 
by a grant; of which we shall have occasion to speak in its 
proper place. 

Our author was now deprived of the means of obtaining a 
livelihood ; and not being disposed to render his literary 
labors subservient to his personal wants, he engaged himself 
as clerk to Mr. Biddle, an attorney at Philadelphia. 

Mr. Paine’s dispute with the congress produced no change 
in his patriotism. On every occasion he continued to display 
the same degree of independence and resolution which had 
produced his first animated efforts in favor of the republican 
cause. Neither personal altercation, nor pecuniary embar¬ 
rassments, had any effect upon his principles. He had enlisted 
himself as a volunteer in the American cause ; and he vindi¬ 
cated her rights under every change of circumstance, with the 
unabated ardor of a freeman. 

Soon after the resignation of his secretaryship, our author 
was chosen clerk of the legislature of Pennsylvania. This 
appointment is a proof that, though he had some enemies, he 
had many friends ; and that the insidious insinuations of the 
former had not been enabled to weaken the attachment of the 
latter. 

In March, 1780, Mr. Paine published the eighth number of 
the ‘ Crisis.’ The subject of this is a second address to the 
people of England. It is written much in the same style as 
the one which preceded it. From all that had taken place, it 
was apparent that America was beyond the reach of conquest; 
and seeing this, he very properly asks the English people 
what their motive was in protracting a contest which appear¬ 
ed to be fraught with nothing but self-destruction. He dwells 
with great emphasis on the calamities of war ; and represents 
the people of England as ignorant of any of its effects, except 
that of taxation. He could not have had a better opportunity 
of depicting the miseries of military contention ; and the por¬ 
trait he has drawn is as natural as life. 

In June following, he published at Philadelphia the ninth 
number of the 1 Crisis.’ This seems to have been written for 
the purpose of consoling the Americans for the loss of Charles¬ 
town,'which had recently fallen into the hands of the British. 
He reasons with considerable force and ingenuity on the in¬ 
significance of such a conquest; and consoles his readers by 
reflecting that similar misfortunes were unavoidable during a 
state of local warfare; and that they w r ere in some measure 
advantageous, inasmuch as, without endangering the real 


62 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


safety of the country, they were sufficiently injurious to pre¬ 
vent its being lulled into the lap of false security. 

In the beginning of October, 1780, our author published, at 
Philadelphia, a long discussion on the subject of taxes, under 
the title of ‘A Crisis Extraordinary.’ He draws a comparison 
between the extent of taxation in the respective countries of 
England and America: he shows, from calculation, that the 
former exceed the latter in more than a tenfold degree ; and 
concludes by recommending the plan of congress ; that of 
funding its paper, and issuing a new coinage as a substitute. 
Notwithstanding the determined hostility of the Americans 
toward the English, their army was considerably oppressed 
for want of pecuniary means ; and to this cause, more than to 
any other, we may attribute the apparent hardiness of their 
operations about this period. In the course of his reflections, 
he takes an opportunity of repeating his former arguments 
against the tyranny, folly, and avarice of the English govern¬ 
ment : he treats the difficulties of the country as affairs of a 
temporary character, which a little privation and perseverance 
would speedily remove. 

While those financial discussions were pending, the con¬ 
gress resolved upon attempting a more effectual plan for re¬ 
moving the public embarrassments, than could be derived 
from any application of the internal resources of the states. 
Mr. Paine drew up a letter to Count Vergennes, stating the 
difficulties in which the country was placed ; and concluding 
with a request that France would / either as a subsidy, or as a 
loan, supply the United States with a million sterling, and 
continue that supply annually during the war. This letter 
Mr. Paine showed first to M. Marbois, the French minister’s 
secretary. He objected to the application by observing, that 
‘a million sent out of a nation exhausted it more than ten 
millions spent in it.’ Our author was not to be baffle^l in his 
design by this rebuff; and he accordingly presented his 
scheme to Mr. Isard, member for South Carolina. This gen¬ 
tleman readily agreed to bring the subject before congress : 
which he did very shortly afterward. The congress, after a 
very short discussion, acceded to the proposal; and a mission 
to the court of France was resolved upon immediately. 

Colonel Laurens, son of the late president of congress, was 
appointed to negotiate the affair ; and, at his anxious solici¬ 
tation, Mr. Paine accompanied him to Paris. They sailed in 
February, 1781, and arrived in France the following month. 
Their mission was attended with more success than was ex¬ 
pected. They obtained six millions of livres as a present, 
and ten millions as a loan, borrowed in Holland on the secu¬ 
rity of France. They sailed from Brest at the beginning of 
June, and arrived at Boston in August; having under their 



MR. PAINE GOES TO FRANCE. 63 

charge two millions and a half in silver, exclusive of a ship 
and brig laden with clothing and military stores. 

From the account which Mr. Paine gives of himself, it ap¬ 
pears that he had, some time previous to this, formed a design 
of coming over to England, for the purppse of exposing to the 
people the folly and perversity of their rulers. ‘ 1 was,’ he 
observes, ‘ strongly impressed with the idea, that if I could get 
over to England without being known, and only remain in 
safety till I could get out a publication, that I could open the 
eyes of the country with respect to the madness and stupidity 
of its government.’* He would have carried his intention into 
effect almost immediately, but for the advice of his friend 
General Greene ; who, it appears, fully approved of the plan: 
but the affair of Arnold and Andre happening shortly after¬ 
ward, the general altered his mind, and wrote very pressingly 
to Mr. Paine to dissuade him from his design. With some 
reluctance he consented to adopt the general’s advice ; both 
parties conceiving that his personal safety would be greatly 
endangered by any attempt at that time to carry his scheme 
into practice. 

During our author’s voyage to France with Col. Laurens, 
another event occurred which confirmed the propriety and 
practicability of this project. An English packet, from Fal¬ 
mouth to New York, was taken by a French privateer; and, 
owing to an artful stratagem of the French captain, the gov¬ 
ernment despatches in the packet were secured and brought 
on board his vessel. They were sent to Paris to the French 
minister, Count Vergennes; who, after reading them, pre¬ 
sented them to Col. Laurens and Mr Paine, to be conveyed 
to America for the information and use of congress. 

What the contents of these despatches were is not known ; 
but it appears that they afforded Mr. Paine a better opportu¬ 
nity of judging of the perfidy and intrigue of the English 
cabinet than could have been done by any other means. This 
circumstance renewed his former plan respecting the British 
government; but Colonel Laurens being unwilling to return 
alone, Mr. Paine was induced to postpone its execution to a 
more favorable opportunity.” 

Previous to this period the French had declared in favor of 
*he United States. The campaign of 1778 was arranged in 
Paris, and a French army and fleet co-operated with Wash¬ 
ington ; yet, after the capture of Burgoyne no decisive ac 
tion was fought till the capture of Cornwallis in 1780. T-hc 
war for several years was chiefly predatory in the south, and 


• ‘Rights of Man.* Part II., p. 70. 


64 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


General Howe, Cornwallis, and the traitor Arnold, laid waste 
the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia ; 
but their troops w r ere continually harassed by the activity and 
skill of the America^ general, Greene, who from a black¬ 
smith became one of the best generals in the service of the 
states. During this year (1780), the finances w r ere in the 
most wretched state ; the paper-money depreciated to a most 
alarming extent, and it was evidently impossible to raise the 
supplies by taxes. Washington’s private accounts to the 
congress clearly revealed the miserable state of the army, 
while their published accounts deceived the enemy. Mr. 
Paine, by his “Common Sense,” had previously produced the 
declaration of independence, and the unanimity of the peo¬ 
ple. The “Crisis,” published as w T e have seen from time to 
time, preserved that unanimity, and in a great measure reg¬ 
ulated the tone of public feeling. But Mr. Paine was not 
backward in his personal services: on one occasion when 
with the army, he formed a plan to destroy a part of the enemy’s 
shipping, and offered to conduct the enterprise. This he ex¬ 
plains in one number of the “ Crisis,” and shows that his ob¬ 
ject was not merely to effect a loss to the English, but to 
abate their pride in the strength of their navy, and to encour¬ 
age the spirits of the people, who thought the British ships- 
of-war impregnable. When the finances were in the worst 
state, before Mr. Paine went to France, and when Washington 
feared the immediate dissolution of the army for want of pay 
and necessaries, Mr. Paine began a private subscription with 
five hundred dollars, all the money he could then raise, inclu¬ 
ding his salary as secretary. The subscriptions on this occa¬ 
sion reached the large amount of three hundred thousand 
pounds i and this fund converted into a bank supplied the im¬ 
mediate wants of the government, and enabled Washington to 
commence the preparation to encompass and subdue Corn¬ 
wallis, and thus bring an end to the war. These preparations 
were facilitated by a knowledge of the success of Colonel 
Laurens’s mission to France, assisted by Mr. Paine: and the 
supplies actually arriving while Washington’s army was ma¬ 
noeuvring for the last great exploit, had, probably a consider¬ 
able effect on the success of those manoeuvres. Tiiis was 


CORNWALLIS SURRENDERS. 


65 


evidently the opinion of Mr. Paine. New York.was in pos¬ 
session of the enemy, the headquarters of Clinton. The 
anxious solicitude of Washington was to recover this city. 
Washington’s plans were apparently all directed to this ob¬ 
ject ; and the chief attention of Clinton consequently bent on 
the retention of that place. Cornwallis was then at York- 
town, Va., on the Susquehannah. The French fleet, hy pre¬ 
tending to fly, drew out the English fleet till a re-enforce¬ 
ment entered the Chesapeake, and then returned to take and 
keep possession of that bay. Troops marching from the 
south did not alarm Clinton ; re-enforcements from the west 
he was perhaps ignorant of; and the troops progressing down 
the Hudson from the north he supposed destined to join 
Washington near New York. When these collections of 
troops were all within a few days’ march of the Susquehan¬ 
nah and Yorktown, Washington suddenly turned his own 
force in that direction. Clinton thought it a ruse, and remain¬ 
ed inactive and thus was Cornwallis suddenly surrounded, in 
every direction, by sea and land, by the regulars, their auxili¬ 
aries, the French and Poles, and by the militia. Cornwallis, 
unprepared for a siege, surrendered before he could be reliev¬ 
ed by Clinton ; and thus a virtual end was put to the war, for 
till peace was restored, the British merely kept possession of 
New York, and one or two other stations, holding in subjec¬ 
tion only the parts actually occupied by their armies. Just 
before this brilliant affair Mr. Paine arrived from France, 
brinuinGf with him two millions of livres in cash and other 
supplies, forming the loading of a brig and a ship. Mr. Paine 
was instrumental in procuring these supplies, as he was better 
known (from the reputation of his writings) than Col. Laurens, 
who for that reason had desired his company. Whether 
these supplies were actually used to facilitate Washington’s 
masterly movements we do not know, but as they were 
known to be coming, they gave the government and Yv^ash- 
ington a credit which they would not otherwise have enjoyed.. 
Money and credit are the sinews of war, and are as necessary 
to success as unanimity. Paine has the merit of contributing 
to both in a very high degree. We shall quote again from 
Sherwin, the most accurate of Mr. Paine’s biographers. 

9 


66 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


“In March, 1782, Mr. Paine published at Philadelphia the 
tenth number of the ‘Crisis.’ The king of England, proba¬ 
bly with a view of keeping the people in good humor with 
the expenses of the war, had delivered a speech at the recent 
opening of parliament in which the Americans were abused, 
and the English flattered, without any regard to truth or pro¬ 
priety. On this document our author delivers his opinion in 
terms of the severest reprobation. He satirizes the preten¬ 
sions of the king to the title of sovereign of a free people, 
and draws an interesting parallel between the hardships of the 
Americans and those they would have suffered had the British 
been victorious. He concludes the number with an address 
to the people of America on the financial affairs of the states. 

In May, 1782, he published at Philadelphia the eleventh 
number of the ‘Crisis:’ ‘On the present State of News.’ It 
had been conjectured and rumored that the object of the Brit¬ 
ish cabinet was to detach France from America, for the pur¬ 
pose of making a separate peace with the former, in order that 
she might be enabled to bring: her whole force against the in¬ 
dependence of the latter. However absurd and dishonorable 
such an attempt might appear, it would have been no more than 
a continuance of the policy which had induced the ministry to 
persist so long in a war where there was neither hope to en¬ 
courage nor principle to sanction their conduct. The present 
number appears to have been written with a view to inform 
the public that such a design had been contemplated by the 
British court, and tha,t want of means alone had prevented 
it from being carried into execution. 

In the same month, Mr. Paine published a supernumerary 
‘Crisis,’ consisting of a letter to Sir Guy Carleton. This is a 
most forcible appeal to the English general respecting the 
barbarous murder of Captain Huddy, by a refugee of the 
name of Lippincot. Captain Huddy, of the Jersey militia, 
with a small party of Americans, had been attacked and taken 
prisoner by an armed force in the pay of the British, and car¬ 
ried into New York. About three weeks afterward he was 
taken down to the water-side, put in a boat, and brought 
again upon the Jersey shore, where he was atrociously mur¬ 
dered, under the direction of the refugee before mentioned. 
General Washington, determined that such an act should not 
pass without punishment, directed that lots should be cast by 
the British prisoners, for the purpose of selecting a victim in 
return for the murder of Captain Huddy. The lot fell upon 
Captain Asgill; and Mr. Paine’s letter to Sir Guy Carleton, 
was written with a view to induce him to give up the mur¬ 
derer, and save the life oF a brave and innocent officer. It 
does not appear that this request was ever complied with ; 
and Asgill, after suffering all the suspense, misery, and de- 


ADDITIONAL CRISIS. 67 

spair, which naturally attend such a situation, was at last par¬ 
doned through the humanity of the American general. 

In October, 1782, our author published, at Philadelphia, a 
letter to Lord Shelburne (afterward marquis of Lansdowne): 
this has since been classed as the twelfth number of the 
‘ Crisis.’ It is throughout an excellent production. The pol¬ 
icy of concluding a peace with America, and acknowledging her 
independence, had on several occasions been discussed ; but 
Lord Shelburne, unable to discover the propriety of the 
measure, and acting under the influence of that silly vanity 
which forms so noble an attribute of the freeborn English¬ 
man, had declared that ‘ the sun of Great Britain would set 
whenever she acknowledged the independence of America.’ 
The sentiment contained in this declaration is treated with a 
poignant satire, which must have been severely felt by the 
party with whom it originated. 

The war was now fast drawing toward a conclusion, and 
America was about to enjoy the benefits of the liberty for 
which she had so long and so ardently contended. The Brit¬ 
ish cabinet was at length convinced of the total impossibility 
of conquering the Americans ; and the operations of the Eng¬ 
lish declined in proportion as this conviction became more 
general. A definite treaty of peace was set on foot at Paris 
toward the end of the year 1782, and concluded a few months 
afterward. The triumphant situation of America—the grand 
and glorious effect of her courage and constancy, is admira¬ 
bly described by Mr. Paine in the last number of the ‘Crisis.’ 
He congratulates the country on the happy conclusion of ‘the 
times that tried men’s souls :’ he dwells with pleasure on the 
fair character which America had established among the na¬ 
tions of the world ; and observes with truth, that she need 
never be ashamed to tell her birth, or relate the stages by 
which she rose to empire. Shortly after the publication of 
this piece, Mr. Paine wrote a reply to a pamphlet by Lord 
Sheffield, on the subject of American commerce. This is 
classed with our author’s previous productions as a supernu¬ 
merary ‘ Crisis.’ 

To have preserved an exact chronological order, we ought 
to have noticed two other pamphlets, written by him some 
time previous to the cessation of hostilities. The first of 
these is entitled ‘Public Good;’ being an examination of the 
claim of Virginia to the vacant western territory. The method 
in which the case is investigated, discovers all the acuteness 
and ability which might be expected from the author; but as 
the subject is not now a matter of interest, even to the 
American reader, it is not here necessary to enter into the 
discussion. There is, however, one circumstance connected 
with the performance which ought not to be omitted, as it 
serves to show the disinterested character of Mr. Paine, and 


68 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


his determination to publish his opinions unbiased and un¬ 
shackled, even though they should militate against bis own 
private interests. The part which our author espoused in 
the dispute was in opposition to the claim of Virginia, though 
it was well known to him at the time that a proposition was 
pending before the assembly of that state, for granting him a 
pecuniary compensation for his writings in favor of independ 
ence. Before the publication of ‘ Public Good,’ the major¬ 
ity of the members were decidedly in favor of the grant; but 
on the appearance of the pamphlet, they suddenly changed 
sides, and the motion was lost by a single vote ! Such is the 
reward of ingenuous patriotism and a love of truth ! With 
facts like this before us, we may cease to wonder that so 
many seemingly disinterested individuals, in every age and 
country, are continually drawn into the vortex of sycophancy 
and apostacy. 

In 1782, he published a letter to the Abbe Raynal. The 
object of this letter was to clear up the mistakes, and expose 
the errors into which the abbe had fallen in his history of the 
American revolution. Among other things the abbe bad as¬ 
serted that none of those energetic causes, which had pro¬ 
duced so many revolutions upon the globe, had existed in 
North America; that neither religion nor laws had there 
been outraged ; that the blood of martyrs had not streamed 
from scaffolds; that morals had not been insulted; that 
neither manners, customs, habits, nor any other object dear 
to nations, had there been the sport of ridicule ; and that the 
only question was, whether the mother-country had or had 
not a right to lay a small tax upon the colonies. To correct 
and refute such misrepresentations as these, a reference to 
facts was barely necessary. They were almost too palpable 
to require a confutation ; and the popular character of the 
abbe in the literary world alone accounts for their obtaining 
a currency. That such a warm and enlightened friend of 
humanity and freedom, as the Abbe Raynal, should be mis 
taken in his ideas of the American revolution, is at first aston¬ 
ishing ; but men who from their cradles have been surround¬ 
ed by despotism, and who have only contemplated the bles¬ 
sings of liberty as a distant though delightful vision, are 
incapable of forming an opinion on so great an event. A long 
habit of beholding the acts of tyranny almost unfits the mind 
for the contemplation of any other object; and to this, more 
than to any other cause, must be attributed the mistaken con¬ 
jectures and disordered statements of the Abbe Raynal. 

From a comparison between some of the abbe’s observa¬ 
tions and those contained in ‘Common Sense,’ on the subject 
of society and government, it appears that the abbe had bor¬ 
rowed very freely from the latter. Some of bis remarks are 
a literal transcript, with the exception of a few words. Among 


PAINE AND WASHINGTON. 


6 ' 


other things which he had misstated, was the account of the 
affair at Trenton, which I have already had occasion to notice. 
The abbe had described this as a mere accidental occurrence, 
falling, as he says, ‘ within the wide empire of chance.’ This 
was a very unjust and ungenerous reflection. The highest 
praise was due to the American general and his troops, as the 
reader will perceive by turning to the account of the action ; 
and it is to be regretted that such a distinguished writer as 
the Abbe Raynal should have been misled on the subject, for 
no person could have done it more justice. 

After exposing the abbe’s errors and misrepresentations, 
Mr. Paine indulges himself in a variety of philosophical re¬ 
flections. The following description of prejudice is so replete 
with originality and beauty, that I cannot forbear quoting it:— 

‘ There is something exceedingly curious in the constitution 
and operation of prejudice. It has the singular ability of ac¬ 
commodating itself to all the possible varieties of the human 
mind. Some passions and vices are but thinly scattered among 
mankind, and find only here and there a fitness of reception. 
But prejudice, like the spider, makes everywhere its home. 
It has neither taste nor choice of place, and all that it requires 
is room. There is scarcely a situation, except fire and water, 
in which the spider will not live. So, let the mind be as naked 
as the walls of an empty and forsaken tenement, gloomy as a 
dungeon, or ornamented with the richest abilities of thinking ; 
let it be hot, cold, dark, or light, lonely or inhabited, still pre 
judice, if undisturbed, will fill it with cobwebs, and live, like 
the spider, where there seems nothing to live on. If the one 
prepares her food by poisoning it to her palate and her use, 
the other does the same ; and as several of our passions are 
strongly characterized by the animal world, prejudice may be 
denominated the spider of the mind.’ 

The spirit of universal philanthropy which formed so con¬ 
spicuous a feature in Mr. Paine’s character, the powerful effect 
of his writings in favor of independence, and the talent which 
he possessed for philosophical and mechanical discussion, ren¬ 
dered his society a valuable acquisition. Of his friendship 
with Dr. Franklin, and several other distinguished individuals, 
we have already had occasion to speak ; and of the esteem in 
which his services and character were held by General Wash¬ 
ington, we have several very unequivocal proofs in his conduct 
toward the end of the war. Soon after the definitive treaty of 
peace was concluded, the general took up his quarters at 
Rocky Hill, in the neighborhood of Princeton (where the con¬ 
gress was then sitting), for the purpose of resigning his com¬ 
mission. There he was informed that Mr. Paine had retired 
to Bordentown, where he had a small property. Conceiving, 


70 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


probably, that Mr. Paine’s circumstances were not in the most 
flourishing condition, he very kindly wrote to him the follow¬ 
ing letter:— 

‘ Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 17S3. 

I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are 
at Bordentown. Whether for the sake of retirement or econ 
omy, I know not. Be it for either, for both, or whatever it 
may, if you will come to this place and partake with me, I 
shall be exceedingly happy to see you at it. 

Your presence may remind congress of your past services 
to this country; and if it is in my power to impress them, 
command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be 
rendered cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of 
the importance of your works, and who, with much pleasure, 
subscribes himself 

Your sincere friend, 

G. Washington.’ 

Mr. Paine was urged by several of his friends to make an 
application to congress for a compensation for his revolution¬ 
ary writings ; but this he uniformly refused to do. That the 
man who had been the means of first rousing the country to 
a declaration of independence, and whose writings had after¬ 
ward very materially contributed to the attainment of the 
object, was deserving of remuneration, no one could deny; 
but Mr. Paine’s services in this respect being entirely of a 
voluntary nature, he could not consent to petition the con¬ 
gress for a pecuniary recompense. His writings, however 
meritorious and serviceable they might have been (and the 
most illiberal of his calumniators do not deny that their effects 
were great and universal), were dictated by the pure prin¬ 
ciples of disinterested patriotism, and he could not degrade 
their character by converting them into a medium of sordid 
emolument. 

I am well aware of the attempts which have been made to 
show that Mr. Paine’s patriotism was not of that disinterested 
nature here described, and when we see that these attempts 
are founded upon the resolutions of congress itself, it is not 
surprising that they should have been attended with some 
success among the weaker part of mankind. A short explan¬ 
ation will, however, do away with the impressions which such 
reports are calculated to produce. Before offering any ob¬ 
servations on the subject, we will first insert the resolutions 
as extracted from the journals of congress:— 

‘Friday, August 26, 1785.—On the report of a committee, 
consisting of Mr. Gerry, Mr. Petit, and Mr. King, to whom 
was referred a letter of the 13th from Thomas Paine :— 


INDEMNITY FROM CONGRESS. 


71 


Resolved, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labors 
of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the princi¬ 
ples of the late revolution, by ingenious and timely publica¬ 
tions upon the nature of liberty and civil government, have 
been well received by the citizens of these states, and merit 
the approbation of congress, and that in consideration of 
these services and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine 
is entitled to a liberal gratification from the United States.’ 

‘ Monday, October 3, 1785.—On the report of a committee, 
consisting of Mr. Gerry, Mr. Howell, and Mr. Long, to whom 
were referred sundry letters from Mr. Thomas Paine, and a 
report on his letter of the 13th of September:— 

Resolved , That the board of treasury take order for paying 
to Mr. Thomas Paine the sum of three thousand dollars, for 
the considerations mentioned in the resolution of the 26th of 
August last.’ 

That the congress granted, and that Mr Paine received, 
the three thousand dollars above mentioned, are facts beyond 
dispute. The only error is in the wording of the two resolu¬ 
tions, which makes the grant appear the reverse of what it 
really was. The case was this : the salary which Mr. Paine 
received as secretary to the committee for foreign affairs was 
very small, being only eight hundred dollars a year, and the 
depreciation which took place in consequence of the immense 
and repeated issues of paper-money, reduced even this to less 
than a fifth of its nominal value. Mr. Paine, aware of the 
difficulties in which the congress were placed, forebore to 
harass them with any applications for money during the war, 
but after it was closed he addressed to them a letter request¬ 
ing that they would make up the depreciation, with some 
other incidental expenses which he had been at in the discharge 
of his official duties. The letter was referred to a committee, 
of which Mr. Gerry was chairman. This gentlemen came to 
Mr. Paine and informed him that ‘the committee had consult¬ 
ed upon the subject, that they intended to bring in a hand¬ 
some report, but they thought it best not to take any notice 
of Deane’s affair or Mr. Paine’s salary.’—‘ They will indemnify 
you,’ said he, ‘ without it. The case is, there are some 
motions on the journals of congress for censuring you with 
respect to Deane’s affair, which cannot now be recalled, 
because they have been printed. We will, therefore, bring in 
a report that will supersede them, without mentioning the 
purport of your letter.’ 

The grant was therefore an indemnity to Mr. Paine for the 
depreciation in his salary as secretary of the committee, and 
the reason for couching it in the terms above quoted, was to 
shield the congress from a confession of the injustice they 
had done our author for his conduct during the disputes about 


72 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


the claims of Silas Deane. It was no more than he had a 
right to expect, and those who granted it had not much rea¬ 
son to boast of their liberality, in performing what was merely 
an act of pecuniary justice. So much for the grant of three 
thousand dollars, the false language in which it is clothed, 
and the malevolent insinuations which it has given rise to. 

But though Mr. Paine had resolved not to make any appli¬ 
cation to the congress on the score of his literary labors, he 
had several friends in the provincial assemblies who were de¬ 
termined that his exertions should not pass unrewarded. I 
have already spoken of the proposition that was made to the 
assembly of Virginia for this purpose, and the cause of its 
failure. Similar motions were brought before the legislature 
of Pennsylvania and the assembly of New York ; the former 
of which gave him ,£500, and the latter the confiscated estate 
of a Mr. Frederick Devoe, a royalist. This estate, situated at 
New Rochelle, consisting of more than three hundred acres 
of land in a high state of cultivation, with a spacious arvd ele¬ 
gant stone-house, beside extensive out-buildings, was a valu¬ 
able acquisition ; and the readiness with which it was granted, 
is a proof of the high estimation in which Mr. Paine’s services 
were held by one of the most opulent and powerful states ir; 
the Union. 

In 1786, he published at Philadelphia, his ‘Dissertations on 
Government,’ ‘The Affairs of the Bank,’ and ‘Paper-Money. 1 
The bank alluded to was the one which had been established 
some years before, under the name of the ‘Bank of North 
America.’ Whatever opinion may be entertained of these in¬ 
stitutions in general, it is evident that the one in question had. 
been of considerable service to the Americans during the 
most eventful period of their struggle for independence ; to 
say the least, it was therefore entitled to their gratitude. But 
when men find themselves in a state of ease and security, they 
are too apt to forget the means by which they obtained these 
advantages ; and the bank, without any regard to its past ser 
vices, was attacked as an establishment at variance with every 
principle of private security and public freedom. In the 
pamphlet before us Mr. Paine gives an elaborate and interest- 
1 ing account of the rise and progress of the institution ; and as 
he was one of the first promoters of the scheme, a short ac 
count of it here will not be altogether unnecessary, although 
it will involve some repetition. 

The beginning of the year 1780 was a very distressing 
season for the Americans. The people, though not conquer¬ 
ed, were depressed ; the soldiers, though not driven from the 
field, were destitute of resources, and such was their condi 
tion, that General Washington was, for a considerable time, 
in the daily dread of a general mutiny. In this state of affairs 
he addressed a letter to the Pennsylvania assembly, describing 



BANK OF NORTH AMERICA. 


73 


in the strongest terms the nature of his situation. At that 
period Mr. Paine was clerk of the assembly, and, as a part of 
his duty, he was requested to read the letter. When this was 
done, he informs us, ‘ a despairing silence pervaded the house.’ 
No one ventured to speak for a considerable time. At length 
one of the members arose and said: ‘If the account in that 
letter is a true state of things, and we are in the situation 
there represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the 
matter any longer. We may as well give up at first as at last.’ 
Another of the members, more cheerful than the last, rose 
and expressed his hope that the house would not be overcome 
by despair; that the only way to get over the difficulty was 
by exertion ; and a motion for adjournment being made, the 
assembly separated without coming to any conclusion. 

America was, indeed, at this period, in a most critical situ¬ 
ation. There now appeared no chance of retrieving her 
affairs by taxation, for the people were already overburdened, 
and the only mode that presented itself was that of a volun¬ 
tary subscription. There was no time to be lost; and, as a 
beginning, Mr. Paine, immediately on his return from the 
house, drew the salary due to him as clerk of the assembly, 
and enclosed five hundred dollars in a letter to Mr. M‘Clena- 
ghan, proposing to him to commence a subscription, as the 
only means of alleviating the wants of the army. This gen¬ 
tleman showed the proposal to several others who fully ap¬ 
proved of it: a subscription was commenced, and after being 
attended with considerable success, the subscribers formed 
themselves into a bank, which soon answered all the purposes 
for which it was intended. In 1782, the subscribers were 
legally incorporated under the title of the ‘Bank of North 
America,’ which they held, with advantage to the public.’ 


Mr. Paine is clear in his opinion on paper-money : but he 
regards this bank as one of necessity in its origin, and of great 
service to the country during the latter part of the war, when 
the irredeemable notes issued by the government had lost 
their value by depreciation. Mr. Paine could not forget the 
services of the bank ; and hence he defended it efficiently 
against this attack, which he considered rude and unneces- 
sary : yet he explicitly condemns the charter, which was made 
perpetual. This was the last public act of Mr. Paine previous 
to his departure for Europe. 

Thus we arrive at the conclusion of the second period of 
Mr. Paine’s life. At this time he enjoyed the highest popu¬ 
larity, and, as we have seen, the friendship of the most 

10 


74 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


enlightened patriots of the age. Mr. Paine was as much 
esteemed in his private life as in his public. He was a wel¬ 
come visiter to the tables of the most distinguished citizens : 
his manners and habits were those of a gentleman, which ren¬ 
dered him agreeable, not only to the master of the family, but 
to the mistress also. He was full of anecdote, extremely 
social, and always mixed goodnature with his reflections. At 
a later period, in prospect of a dinner-party, Horne Tooke 
remarked, that “ he would venture to say that the best thing 
would be said by Mr. Paine.” Indeed, his conversational 
powers were as distinguished as his tact for writing. An old 
lady, now a boardinghouse-keeper in Cedar street, remembers, 
when a girl, visiting Mr. Paine just after the war, when he 
took possession of his house and farm at New Kochelle, and 
gave a village-fete on the occasion ; she then only knew him 
as “ Common Sense,” and supposed that was his name. On 
that day he had something to say to everybody, and young 
as she was she received a portion of his attention ; while he 
sat in the shade and assisted in the labor of the feast, by cut¬ 
ting or breaking sugar to be used in some agreeable liquids 
by his guests. Mr. Paine was then, if not handsome, a fine, 
agreeable looking man. 

Those disposed to censure Mr. Paine, find a subject in the 
affair of Deane : they say nothing can excuse his betrayal of 
the public secrets of office, even though it was for the benefit 
of the people, to resist an unjust claim on the public, and to 
expose a public robber. In this affair we must, however, re¬ 
member, that when France wished the secret kept she was 
not at war with England; but that when Paine made the ex¬ 
posure France was at open war with England. Still, we are 
not disposed to defend the act ,• while we acquit him of every 
moral impropriety. We think, with Sterne, in the case of 
Corporal Trim, who had disobeyed orders in the performance 
of an act of humanity, when he makes Uncle Toby say, “ You 
did very right as a man, hut very wrong as a soldier.” Mr. 
Paine was placed in a position where he had the choice of 
two evils: in his choice he sacrificed himself for the benefit 
of the country. A man, less generous, would have taken 
care of himself at all hazards. 


GOES TO EUROPE. 


75 


PART III. 

FROM MR. PAINE’S DEPARTURE FROM AMERICA IN 1787 TO HIS FINAL 

RETURN IN 1802, EMBRACING THE PERIOD OF THE FRENCH REVOLU¬ 
TION AND DURATION OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 

“We are now,” says Sherwin, “to follow Mr. Paine to a 
different scene from that in which he had been a prominent 
performer for nearly thirteen years. His desire of attacking 
the English government on the spot where its principles were 
still in full operation, had suffered no change or abatement, 
and as America no longer stood in need of his services, he 
resolved on putting his project into execution as soon as pos¬ 
sible. In April, 1787, he set sail from the United States for 
France, and arrived in Paris after a short passage. His 
knowledge of mechanics and natural philosophy had before 
his departure procured him the honor of being admitted a 
member of the American Philosophical society ; he was like¬ 
wise appointed master of arts by the university of Philadel¬ 
phia. These academic honors, though not of much conse¬ 
quence in themselves, were the means of introducing him to 
several of the most scientific men in France, and soon after 
his arrival he exhibited to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, 
the model of an iron bridge which had occupied much of his 
leisure time during his residence in America. This ingenious 
and useful production received the most unqualified approba¬ 
tion of the academy, and it is but justice to Mr. Paine to 
observe, that his recommendations on this subject have been 
sanctioned and adopted by some of the most enlightened 
characters of the present age. Among those who have given 
their opinion on the subject, we ought to notice Sir Joseph 
Banks, who, in a letter to a friend in America, published some 
years ago, says : ‘ I expect many similar improvements from 
your countrymen, who think with vigor, and are in a great 
measure free from those shackles of theory which are impress¬ 
ed on the minds of our people, even before they are capable 
of exerting their mental faculties to advantage.’ 

From Paris Mr. Paine proceeded to London, where he ar¬ 
rived on the third of September. Before the end of that 
month he went to Thetford to see his mother, who by this time 
was borne down by age and penury. His father, it appears, 
had died during his absence $ and he hastened to the place of 


73 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


\ 


his birth to relieve the wants of his surviving parent. He led a 
recluse sort of life at Thetfora for several weeks, being princi 
pally occupied in writing a pamphlet on the state of the nation, 
under the title of ‘Prospects on the Rubicon.’ This was pub¬ 
lished in London, toward the end of the year 1787. The pur¬ 
port of the work is an investigation of the causes and conse¬ 
quences of the politics expected to be agitated at the approach¬ 
ing meeting of parliament. A great variety of subjects are 
introduced, not only on government in general, but on what 
is usually termed political economy. The principal portion 
of it is occupied with a discussion on the then unsettled state 
of the affairs of Holland, and a comparison between the pop¬ 
ulation, revenues, wealth, and general condition of France and 
England. The French revolution was at this period begin¬ 
ning to bud forth, a spirit of inquiry was diffusing itself over 
the land, while in England the people were sunk into a state 
of torpid lethargy. ‘ The people of France,’ Mr. Paine 
observes, ‘were beginning to think for themselves, and the 
people of England were resigning up the prerogative of 
thinking.’ 

O ^ t ^ 

During the year 1788, Mr. Paine was principally occupied in 
building his bridge. For this purpose he went to Rotherham 
in Yorkshire, in order that he might have an opportunity of 
superintending the castings of iron, which were executed 
under the direction of his ingenious friend, Mr. Walker, the 
proprietor of the foundry at that place. For a copious 
account of the success which attended this project, the reader 
is referred to the author’s letter to Sir George Staunton. 
This gentleman, who it appears possessed talent enough to 
appreciate the value of the performance, sent the letter to 
the Society of Arts, &c., in the Adelphi : its contents were 
deservedly regarded by the members of the society as a sub¬ 
ject worthy of their notice, and it was unanimously determined 
that the letter should be published in their ‘ Transactions 
but the moment the first part of ‘Rights of Man’ made its 
appearance, this determination was reversed, and the votaries 
and advocates of science became the voluntary tools of 
despotism. How thoroughly despicable must the minds of 
those men be, who could be gratified by such an act of pitiful 
meanness ! 

Mr. Paine had been at considerable expense in the erection 
of his bridge, which was principally defrayed by a Mr. White- 
side, an American merchant. Of our author’s connexions 
with this gentleman I have not been able to obtain any partic¬ 
ulars which may be relied upon; but the probability is, that 
Mr. Paine had consigned over to him some of his property in 
America, and on the strength of this consideration had drawn 
upon him for money whenever he had wanted it. Be this as 
it may, it is certain he had overdrawn his account to a consid- 


1 




CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


77 


erable extent, and Whiteside becoming a bankrupt soon after¬ 
ward, the assignees arrested him for the balance. From this 
disagreeable situation he was in a short time released by the 
kindness of two American merchants, who agreed to become 
his bail, Mr. Paine paying down a considerable portion of the 
money, which by this time he had received from America, and 
giving his promissory note for the remainder. 

Th$ situation of France was by this period become a mat¬ 
ter of great interest to all Europe, and as Mr. Paine was in 
confidential intercourse with the chief authors of the great 
scenes which were taking place, he hastened over to Paris, 
that he might have the pleasure of witnessing the downfall 
of Bourbon despotism.” * 

Mr. Paine’s disinterested exertions in the cause both of 
French and English liberty can best be understood by taking 
a clear view of the French revolution ; and as Mr. Paine has 
himself given us the best concise history of that event, we 
shall offer no apology for its introduction here. Our extract 
is taken from the “Eights of Man,” a work which we must 
presently introduce as the principal political publication of 
Mr. Paine. In this work he quotes an expression of Mr. 
Burke, that, “All circumstances taken together, the French 
revolution is the most astonishing that has hitherto happened 
in the world.” Mr. Paine then remarks :— 

“As wise men are astonished at foolish things, and other 
people at wise ones, I know not on which ground to account 
for Mr. Burke’s astonishment ; but certain it is that he does 
not understand the French revolution. It has apparently 
burst forth like a creation from a chaos, but it is no more 
than the consequence of mental revolution previously exist¬ 
ing in France. The mind of the nation had changed before¬ 
hand, and a new order of things has naturally followed a new 
order of thoughts. I will here, as concisely as I can, trace 
out the growth of the French revolution, and mark the cir¬ 
cumstances that have contributed to produce it. 

The despotism of Louis XIV. united with the gayety of 
his court, and the gaudy ostentation of his character, had so 
humbled, and at the same time so fascinated the mind of 
France, that the people appear to have lost all sense of their 
own dignity, in contemplating that of their grand monarch: 
and the whole reign of Louis XV., remarkable only for weak¬ 
ness and effeminacy, made no other alteration than that of 
spreading a sort of lethargy over the nation, from which it 
showed no disposition to rise. 


78 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


The only signs which appeared of the spirit of liberty 
during those periods, are to be found in the writings of the 
French philosophers. Montesquieu, president of the parlia¬ 
ment of Bourdeaux, went as far as a writer under a despotic 
government could well proceed: and being obliged to divide 
himself between principle and prudence, his mind often ap¬ 
pears under a veil, and we ought to give him credit for more 
than he has expressed. 

Voltaire, who was both the flatterer and satirist of despo¬ 
tism, took another line. His forte lay in exposing and ridicu¬ 
ling the superstitions which priestcraft, united with statecraft, 
had interwoven with governments. It was not from the puri¬ 
ty of his principles, or his love of mankind (for satire and 
philanthropy are not naturally concordant), but from his 
strong capacity of seeing folly in its true shape, and his irre¬ 
sistible propensity to expose it, that he made those attacks. 
They were, however, as formidable as if the motives had 
been virtuous; and he merits the thanks rather than the 
esteem of mankind. 

On the contrary, we find in the writings of Rousseau and 
Abbe Raynal, a loveliness of sentiment in favor of liberty, 
that excites respect, and elevates the human faculties; yet 
having raised this animation, they do not direct its operations, 
but leave the mind in love with an object, without describing 
the means of possessing it. 

The writings of Quisne, Turgot, and the friends of those 
authors, are of a serious kind ; but they labored under the 
same disadvantage with Montesquieu ; their writings abound 
with moral maxims of government, but are rather directed to 
economize and reform the administration of the government, 
^han the government itself. 

But all those writings and many others had their weight; 
and by the different manner in which they treated the subject 
of government—Montesquieu by his judgment and knowledge 
of laws, Voltaire by his wit, Rousseau and Raynal by their 
animation, and Quisne and Turgot by their moral maxims and 
systems of economy—readers of every class met with some¬ 
thing to their taste, and a spirit of political inquiry began to 
diffuse itself through the nation at the time the dispute between 
England and the then colonies of America broke out. 

In the war which France afterward engaged in, it is very 
well known that the nation appeared to be beforehand with 
the French ministry. Each of them had its views; but those 
views were directed to different objects; the one sought 
liberty and the other retaliation on England. The French 
officers and soldiers who after this went to America, were 
eventually placed in the school of freedom, and learned the 
practice as well as the principles of it by heart. 

A s it was impossible to separate the military events which 


HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


79 


took place in America from the principles of the American 
revolution, the publication of those events in France neces¬ 
sarily connected themselves with the principles that produced 
them. Many of the facts were in themselves principles ; such 
as the declaration of American independence, and the treaty 
of alliance between France and America, which recognised 
the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression. 

The then minister of France, Count Vergennes, was not the 
friend of America; and it is both justice and gratitude to say 
that it was the queen of France who gave the cause of Amer¬ 
ica a fashion at the French court. Count Vergennes was the 
personal and social friend of Dr. Franklin ; and the doctor had 
obtained, by his sensible gracefulness, a sort of influence over 
him j but with respect to principles, Count Vergennes was a 
despot. 

The situation of Dr. Franklin as minister from America to 
France should be taken into the chain of circumstances. A 
diplomatic character is the narrowest sphere of society that 
man can act in. It forbids intercourse by a reciprocity of 
suspicion ; and a diplomatist is a sort of unconnected atom, 
continually repelling and repelled. But this was not the 
case with Dr. Franklin ; he was not the diplomatist of a court, 
but of man . His character as a philosopher had been long 
established, and his circle of society in France was universal. 

Count Vergennes resisted for a considerable time the pub¬ 
lication of the American constitutions in France, translated 
into the French language ; but even in this he was obliged to 
give way to public opinion, and a sort of propriety in admit¬ 
ting to appear what he had undertaken to defend. The Amer¬ 
ican constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to 
language: they define its parts of speech, and practically 
construct them into syntax. 

The peculiar situation of the then Marquis de la Fayette is 
another link in the great chain. He served in America as an 
American officer, under a commission of congress, and by the 
universality of his acquaintance, was in close friendship with 
the civil government of America as well as with the military 
line. He spoke the language of the country, entered into the 
discussions on the principles of government, and was always 
a welcome friend at any election. 

When the war closed, a vast reinforcement to the cause of 
liberty spread itself over France, by the return of the French 
officers and soldiers. A knowledge of the practice was then 
joined to the theory ; and all that was wanting to give it real 
existence, was opportunity. Man cannot, properly speaking, 
make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his 
power to improve them when they occur: and this was the 
case in France. 

M. Neckar was displaced in May, 1781 \ and by the ill man 


80 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


agement of the finances afterward, and particularly during the 
extravagant administration of M. Calonne, the revenue of 
France, which was nearly twenty-four millions sterling per 
year, was become unequal to the expenditures, not because 
the revenue had decreased, but because the expenses had 
increased, and this was the circumstance which the nation 
laid hold of to bring forward a revolution. The English min 
ister, Mr. Pitt, has frequently alluded to the state of the 
French finances in his budgets, without understanding the 
subject. Had the French parliaments been as ready to 
register edicts for new taxes, as an English parliament is to 
grant them, there had been no derangement in the finances, 
nor yet any revolution ; but this will better explain itself as I 
proceed. 

It will be necessary here to show how taxes were formerly 
raised in France. The king, or rather the court or ministry, 
acting under the use of that name, framed the edicts for taxes 
at their own discretion, and sent them to the parliaments to 
be registered ; for, until they were registered by the parlia¬ 
ments, they were not operative. Disputes had long existed 
between the court and the parliament with respect to the ex¬ 
tent of the parliament’s authority on this head. The court 
insisted that the authority of parliament went no farther than 
to remonstrate or show reasons against the tax, reserving to 
itself the right of determining whether the reasons were well 
or ill founded ; and in consequence thereof, either to with¬ 
draw the edict as a matter of choice, or to order it to be 
registered as a matter of authority. The parliaments on 
their parts insisted, that they had not only a right to remon¬ 
strate, but to reject ; and on this ground they were always 
supported by the nation. 

B'ut to return to the order of my narrative : M. Calonne 
wanted money ; and as he knew the sturdy disposition of 
the parliaments with respect to new taxes, he ingeniously 
sought either to approach them by a more gentle-means than 
that of direct authority, or to get over their heads by a ma- 
ncevre ; and for this purpose he revived the project of assem- 
bli ng a body of men from the several provinces, under the 
style of an ‘assembly of the notables,’ or men of note, who 
met in 1787, and were either to recommend taxes to the par¬ 
liaments or to act as a parliament themselves. An assembly 
under this name had been called in 1687. 

As we are to view this as the first practical step toward the 
revolution, it will be proper to enter into some particulars re¬ 
specting it. The assembly of the notables has in some places 
been mistaken for the states-general, but was wholly a differ¬ 
ent body ; the states-general beinQf always by election. The 
persons who composed the assembly of the notables were all 
nominated by the king, and consisted of one hundred and 


STEPS TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


8] 


forty members. But as M. Calonne could not depend upon a 
majority of this assembly in his favor, he very ingeniously 
arranged them in such a manner as to make forty-four a ma 
jority of one hundred and forty. To effect this, he disposed 
of them into seven separate committees of twenty members 
each. Every general question was to be decided, not by a 
majority of persons, but by a majority of committees ; and, 
as eleven votes would make a majority in a committee, and 
four committees a majority of seven, M. Calonne had good 
reason to conclude, that as forty-four would determine any 
general question, he could not be outvoted. But all his plans 
deceived him, and in the event became his overthrow. 

The then Marquis de la Fayette was placed in the second 
committee, of which Count d’Artois was president ; and as 
money matters was the object, it naturally brought into view 
every circumstance connected with it. M. de la Fayette 
made a verbal charge against Calonne, for selling crown-land 
to the amount of two millions of livres, in a manner that ap¬ 
peared to be unknown to the king. The Count d’Artois (as 
if to intimidate, for the bastile was then in being) asked the 
marquis if he would render the charge in writing. He replied 
that he would. The Count d’Artois did not demand it, but 
brought a message from the king to that purport. M. de la 
Fayette then delivered in his charge in writing, to be given 
to the king, undertaking to support it. No farther proceed¬ 
ings were had, upon this affair but M. Calonne was soon after 
dismissed by the king, and went to England. 

As M de la Fayette, from the experience he had had in 
America, was better acquainted with the science of civil gov¬ 
ernment than the generality of the members who composed 
the assembly of the notables could then be, the brunt of the 
business fell considerably to his share. The plan of those 
who had a constitution in view was to contend with the court 
on the ground of taxes, and some of them openly professed 
their object. Disputes frequently arose between Count d’Ar¬ 
tois and M. de la Fayette upon various subjects. With respect 
to the arrears already incurred, the latter proposed to remedy 
them, by acommodating the expenses to the revenue, instead 
of the revenue to the expenses ; and as objects of reform, he 
proposed to abolish the bastile, and all the state-prisons 
throughout the nation (the keeping of which was attended 
with great expense) and to suppress lettres de cachet / but 
those matters were not then much attended to ; and with re¬ 
spect to lettres de cachet , a majority of the nobles appeared to ' 
be in favor of them. 

On the subject of supplying the treasury by new taxes, the 
assembly declined taking the matter on themselves, concur¬ 
ring in the opinion that they had not authority. In a debate 
on the subject, M. de la Fayette said, that raising money by 

11 


82 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


taxes could only be done by a national assembly, freely elect¬ 
ed by the people, and acting as their representatives. ‘Do 
you mean,’ said the Count d’Artois, ‘ the states-general V M. 
de la Fayette replied that he did. ‘Will you,’ said the Count 
d’Artois, ‘sign what you say, to be given to the king V The 
other replied that he not only would do this, but that he 
he would go farther, and say, that the effectual mode would 
be, for the king to agree to the establishment of a constitution. 

As one of the plans had thus failed, that of getting the as¬ 
sembly to act as a parliament, the other came into view, that 
of recommending. On this subject, the assembly agreed to 
recommend two new taxes to be enregistered by the parlia¬ 
ment, the one a stamp-act, and the other a territorial tax, or 
sort of land tax. The two have been estimated at about five 
millions sterling per annum. We have now to turn our atten¬ 
tion to the parliaments, on whom the business was again de¬ 
volving. 

The archbishop of Thoulouse (since archbishop of Sens, 
and now a cardinal) was appointed to the administration of 
the finances, soon after the dismission of Calonne. He was 
also made prime minister, an officer that did not always exist 
in France. When this office did not exist, the chief of each 
of the principal departments transacted business immediately 
with the king ; but when a prime minister was appointed, they 
did business only with him. The archbishop arrived to more 
state authority than any minister since the Duke de Choiseuil, 
and the nation was strongly disposed in bis favor ; but by a 
line of conduct scarcely to be accounted for, he perverted ev¬ 
ery opportunity, turned out a despot, and sunk into disgrace, 
and a cardinal. 

The assembly of the notables having broke up, the new 
minister sent the edicts for the two new taxes recommend¬ 
ed by the assembly to the parliaments, to be enregistered 
They of course came first before the parliament of Paris, 
who returned for answer, that, with such a revenue, as the na¬ 
tion then supported , the name of taxes ought not to be mentioned, 
but for the purpose of reducing them,, and threw both the edicts 
out.* 

On th is refusal, the parliament was ordered to Versailles, 
where, in the usual form, the king held, what under the old 
government was called a bed of justice : and the two edicts 
were enregistered in presence of the parliament., by an order 
of state. On this, the parliament immediately returned to 
Paris, renewed their session in form, and ordered the enregis- 
tering to be struck out, declaring that everything done at Ver¬ 
sailles was illegal. All the members of parliament were then 
served with lettres de cachet , and exiled to Trois ; but as they 

• When the English minister, Mr. Pitt, mentions the French finances again in 
the English parliament, it would be well that he noticed this as an examole 


STEPS TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


83 


continued as inflexible in exile as before, and as vengeance did 
not supply the place of taxes, they were after a short time 
recalled to Paris. 

The edicts were again tendered to them, and the Count 
d’Artois undertook to act as representative for the king. For 
this purpose, he came from Versailles to Paris, in a train of 
procession ; and the parliament was assembled to receive him. 
But show and parade had lost their influence in France; and 
whatever ideas of importance he might set off with, he had 
to return with those of mortification and disappointment. 
On alighting from his carriage to ascend the steps of the par¬ 
liament-house, the crowd (which was numerously collected) 
threw out trite expressions, saying: ‘ This is Monsieur d’Ar- 
tois, who wants more of our money to spend.’ The marked 
disapprobation which he saw, impressed him with apprehen¬ 
sions ; and the word aux arms (to arms) was given out by the 
officer of the guard who attended him. It was so loudly vo¬ 
ciferated, that it echoed through the avenues of the house, 
and produced a temporary confusion : I was then standing in 
one of the apartments through which he had to pass, and 
could not avoid reflecting how wretched is the condition of a 
disrespected man. 

He endeavored to impress the parliament by great words, 
and opened his authority by saying : ‘ The king our lord and 
master.’ The parliament received him very coolly, and with 
their usual determination not to register the taxes ; and in 
this manner the interview ended. 

After this a new subject took place ; in the various debates 
and contests that arose between the court and the parliaments 
on the subject of taxes, the parliament of Paris at last declar¬ 
ed, that although it had been customary for parliaments to 
enregister edicts for taxes as a matter of convenience, the 
right belonged only to the states-general; and that, therefore, 
the parliaments could no longer with propriety continue to 
debate on what it had not authority to act. The king, after 
this, came to Paris, and held a meeting with the parliament, 
in which he continued from ten in the morning till about six 
in the evening; and, in a manner that appeared to proceed 
from him, as if unconsulted upon with the cabinet or minis- 
Iry, gave his word to the parliament that the states-general 
should be convened. 

But after this, another scene arose, on a ground different 
from all the former. The minister and the cabinet were 
averse to calling the states-general: they well knew, that if 
*.he states-general were assembled, that themselves must fall; 
ind as the king had not mentioned any time , they hit on a 
project calculated to elude, without appearing to oppose. 

For this purpose, the court set about making a sort of con¬ 
stitution itself: it was principally the work of M. Lamoignon, 


84 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


keeper of the seals, who afterward shot himself. The ar¬ 
rangement consisted in establishing a body under the name of 
a cour pleniere, or full court, in which were invested all the 
power that the government might have occasion to make use 
of. The persons composing this court to be nominated by the 
king ; the contended right of taxation was given up on the 
part of the king, and a new criminal code of laws, and law 
proceedings, was substituted in the room of the former 
The thing, in many points, contained better principles than 
those upon which the government had hitherto been adminis¬ 
tered ; but, with respect to the cour pleniere , it was no other 
than a medium through which despotism was to pass, without 
appearing to act directly from itself. 

The cabinet had high expectations from their new contri¬ 
vance. The persons who were to compose the cour pleniere 
were already nominated ; and as it was necessary to carry a 
fair appearance, many of the best characters in the nation 
were appointed among the number. It was to commence on 
the eighth of May, 1788: but an opposition arose to it, on two 
grounds—the one as to principle, the other as to form. 

On the ground of principle it was contended, that govern¬ 
ment had not a right to alter itself; and that if the practice 
was once admitted, it would grow into a principle, and be 
made a precedent for any future alterations the government 
might wish to establish ; that the right of altering the govern¬ 
ment was a national right, and not a right of government. 
And on the ground of form, it was contended that the cour 
pleniere was nothing more than a large cabinet. 

The then Dukes de la Rochefoucault, Luxembourg, de Noa- 
illes, and many others, refused to accept the nomination, and 
strenuously opposed the whole plan. When the edict for 
establishing this new court was sent to the parliaments to be 
enregistered, and put into execution, they resisted also. The 
parliament of Paris not only refused, but denied the authority ; 
and the contest renewed itself between the parliament and the 
cabinet more strongly than ever. While the parliament was 
sitting in debate on this subject, the ministry ordered a regi¬ 
ment of soldiers to surround the house, and form a blockade. 
The members sent out for beds and provision, and lived as in 
a besieged citadel; and as this had no effect, the command¬ 
ing officer was ordered to enter the parliament-house and 
seize them, which he did, and some of the principal members 
were shut up in different prisons. About the same time a dep¬ 
utation of persons arrived from the province of Britanny, to 
remonstrate against the establishment of the cour pleniere, 
and those the archbishop sent to the bastile. But the spirit 
of the nation was not to be overcome ; and it was so fully 
sensible of the strong ground it had taken, that of withhold¬ 
ing taxes, that it contented itself with keeping up a sort of 



STEPS TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


St 

quiet resistance, which effectually overthrew all the plans at 
that time formed against it. The project of the cour pleniere 
was at last obliged to be given up, and the prime minister not 
long afterward followed its fate: and M. Neckar was recalled 
into olfice. 

The attempt to establish the cour pleniere had an effect 
upon the nation which was not anticipated. It was a sort 
of new form of government, that insensibly served to put the 
old one out of sight, and to unhinge it from the superstitious 
authority of antiquity. It was government dethroning gov¬ 
ernment ; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, 
made a chasm. 

The failure of this scheme renewed the subject, of conve¬ 
ning the states-general ; and this gave rise to a new series of 
politics. There was no settled form for convening the states- 
general : all that it positively meant was a deputation from 
what was then called the clergy, the nobility, and the com¬ 
mons; but their numbers, or their proportions, had not always 
been the same. They had been convened only on extraordi¬ 
nary occasions, the last of which was in 1614; their numbers 
were then in equal proportions, and they voted by orders. 

It could not well escape the sagacity of M. Neckar, that the 
mode of 1614 would answer neither tbe purpose of the then 
government, nor of the nation. As matters were at that time 
circumstanced, it would have been too contentious to argue 
upon anything. The debates would have been endless upon 
privileges and exemptions, in which neither the wants of the 
government, nor the wishes of the nation for a constitution, 
would have been attended to. But as he did not choose to 
take the decision upon himself, he summoned again the 
assembly of the notables , and referred it to them. This body was 
in general interested in the decision, being chiefly of the 
aristocracy and the high-paid clergy; and they decided in 
favor of the mode of 1614. This decision was against 
the sense of the nation, and also against the wishes of the 
court ; for the aristocracy opposed itself to both, and con¬ 
tended for privileges independent of either. The subject was 
then taken up by the parliament, who recommended that the 
number of the commons should be equal to the other two ; 
and that they should all sit in one house and vote in one body. 
The number finally determined on was twelve hundred: six 
hundred were to be chosen by the commons (and this was 
less than their proportion ought to have been when their 
worth and consequence are considered on a national scale), 
three hundred by the clergy, and three hundred by the aris¬ 
tocracy ; but with respect to the mode of assembling them¬ 
selves, whether together or apart, or the manner in which 
they should vote, those matters were referred.* 

* Mr. Burke (and I must take the liberty of telling him that he is unacquaint- 
d with French affairs), speaking upon this subject says, ‘ The first thing that 


8n 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


The election that followed was not a contested election, 
but an animated one. The candidates were not men but prin 
ciples. Societies were formed in Paris, and committees of 
correspondence and communication established throughout 
the nation, for the purpose of enlightening the people, and 
explaining to them the principles of civil government ; and so 
orderly was the election conducted, that it did not give rise 
even to the rumor of tumult. 

The states-general were to meet at Versailles in April, 1789, 
but did not assemble till May. They situated themselves in 
three separate chambers, or rather the clergy and the aris¬ 
tocracy withdrew each, into a separate chamber. The major¬ 
ity of the aristocracy claimed what they called the privilege 
of voting as a separate body, and of giving their consent or 
their negative in that manner ; and many of the bishops and 
the high-beneficed clergy claimed the same privilege on the 
part of their order. 

The tiers etat (as they were called) disowned any knowledge 
of artificial orders and artificial privileges ; and they were 
not only resolute on this point, but somewhat disdainful. 
They began to consider aristocracy as a kind of fungus grow¬ 
ing out of the corruption of society, that could not be admit¬ 
ted even as a branch of it ; and from the disposition the aris¬ 
tocracy had shown, by upholding lettres de cachet, and in 
sundry other instances, it was manifest that no constitution 

V ' 

could be formed by admitting men in any other character 
than as national men. 

After various altercations on this head, the Hers etat, or 
commons (as they were then called), declared themselves (on 
a motion made for that purpose by the Abbe Sieyes) ‘the 
representatives of the nation ; and that the two orders could 
he considered but as deputies of corporations, and could only 
have a deliberative voice but when they assembled in a national 

struck me in calling the states-general was a great departure from the ancient 
course;’ and he soon after says, ‘ From the moment I read the list, I saw dis¬ 
tinctly, and very nearly as it has happened, all that was to follow.’ Mr. Burke cer¬ 
tainly did not see all that was to follow. I have endeavored to impress him, as 
well before as after the states-general met, that there wonld be a revolution; 
but was not able to make him see it, neither would he believe it. How, then, he 
could distinctly see all the parts, when the whole was out of sight, is beyond my 
comprehension. And with respect to the ‘departure from the ancient course,’ 
beside the natural weakness of the remark, it shows that he is unacquainted 
with circumstances. The departure was necessary, from the experience had 
upon it, that the ancient course was a bad one. The states-general of 1614 were 
called at the commencement of the civil war in the minority of Louis XIII.; but 
by the clash of arranging them by orders, they increased the confusion they were 
called to compose. The author of VIntrigue du Cabinet (Intrigue of the Cab¬ 
inet), who wrote before any revolution was thought of in France, speaking of the 
states-general of 1614 says: ‘ They held the public in suspense five months; 
and by the questions agitated therein, and the heat with which they were put, it 
appears that the great (lee grandes) thought more to satisfy their particular 
passions than to procure the good of the nation ; and the whole time passed 
awav in altercations, ceremonies, and parade.’—‘ VIntrigue du Cabinet vol. i. 
p. 329- 


STEPS TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 


87 


character with the national representatives' This proceeding 
extinguished the style of etats generaux, or states-general, and 
erected it into the >style it now bears, that of Vassemble ua- 
tionale , or national assembly. 

Ibis motion was not made in a precipitate manner: it was 
the result of cool deliberation, and concerted between the 
national representatives and the patriotic members of the two 
chambers, who saw into the folly, mischief, and injustice of 
artificial privileged distinctions. It was become evident that 
no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could 
be established on anything less than a national ground. The 
aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the court, 
and affected the language of patriotism ; but it opposed it as 
its rival (as the English barons opposed King John) ; and it 
now opposed the nation from the same motives. 

On carrying this motion the national representatives, as 
had been concerted, sent an invitation to the two chambers, 
to unite with them in a national character, and proceed to 
business. A majority of the clergy, chiefly of the parish- 
priests, withdrew from the clerical chamber and joined the 
nation ; and forty-five from the other chamber joined in like 
manner. There is a sort of secret historv belonging to this 
last circumstance, which is necessary to its explanation : it 
was not judged prudent that all the patriotic members of the 
chamber, styling itself the nobles, should quit it at once; and 
in consequence of this arrangement, they drew off by degrees, 
always leaving some, as well to reason the case, as to watch 
the suspected. In a little time the numbers increased from 
forty-five to eighty, and soon after to a greater number ; 
which, with a majority of the clergy, and the whole of the 
national representatives, put the malcontents in a very dimin¬ 
utive condition. 

The king, who, very different to the general class called by 
that name, is a man of a good heart, showed himself disposed 
to recommend a union of the three chambers, on the ground 
the national assembly had taken ; but the malcontents exerted 
themselves to prevent it, and began now to have another pro¬ 
ject in view. Their numbers consisted of a majority of the 
aristocratical chamber, and a minority of the clerical cham¬ 
ber, chiefly of bishops and high-beneficed clergy ; and these 
men were determined to put everything to issue, as well by 
strength as by stratagem. They had no objection to a con¬ 
stitution ; but it must be such a one as themselves should 
dictate, and suited to their own views and particular situations. 
On the other hand, the nation disowned knowing anything of 
them but as citizens, and was determined to shut out all such 
upstart pretensions. The more aristocracy appeared, the 
more it was despised ; there was a visible imbecility and 
want of intellect in the majority, a sort of je ne sais quoi , that 


88 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


while it affected to be more than citizen was less than man. 
It lost ground more from contempt than from hatred ; and 
was rather jeered at as an ass than dreaded as a lion. This 
is the general character of aristocracy, or what are called no¬ 
bles or nobility, or rather no-ability, in all countries. 

The plan of the malcontents consisted now of two things ; 
either to deliberate and vote by chambers (or orders), more 
especially on all questions respecting a constitution (by 
which the aristocratical chamber would have had a negative 
on any article of the constitution), or, in case they could not 
accomplish this object, to overthrow the national assembly 
entirely. 

To effect one or the other of these objects, they began now 
to cultivate a friendship with the despotism they had hitherto 
attempted to rival, and the Count d’Artois became their chief. 
The king (who has since declared himself deceived into their 
measures) held, according to the old form, a bed of just ice, in 
which he accorded to the deliberation and vote par tele (by 
head) upon several objects; but reserved the deliberation and 
vote, upon all questions respecting a constitution, to the 
three chambers separately. This declaration of the king was 
made against the advice of M. Neckar, who now began to per¬ 
ceive that he was growing out of fashion at court, and that 
another minister was in contemplation. 

As the form of sitting in separate chambers was yet appa¬ 
rently kept up, though essentially destroyed, the national rep¬ 
resentatives, immediately after this declaration of the king, 
resorted to their own chambers to consult on a protest against 
it; and the minority of the chamber (calling itself the nobles) 
who had joined the national cause, retired to a private house 
to consult in like manner. The malcontents had by this time 
concerted their measures with the court, which count d’Ar¬ 
tois undertook to conduct: and as they saw, from the discon¬ 
tent which the declaration excited, and the opposition making 
against it, that they could not obtain a control over the in¬ 
tended constitution by a separate vote, they prepared them¬ 
selves for their final object ; that of conspiring against the 
national assembly and overthrowing it. 

The next morning the door of the chamber of the national 
assembly was shut against them, and guarded by troops, and 
the members were refused admittance. On this they with¬ 
drew to a tennis-ground, in the neighborhood of Versailles, as 
the most convenient place they could find ; and, after renew¬ 
ing their session, took an oath never to separate from each 
other under any circumstances whatever, death excepted, 
until they had established a constitution. As the experiment 
of shutting up the house had no other effect than that of pro* 
ducing a closer connexion in the members, it was opened 


STEPS IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. S9 

again the next day, and the public business recommenced in 
the usual place. 

We are now to have in view the forming of the new minis¬ 
try, which was to accomplish the overthrow of the national 
assembly. But as force would be necessary, orders were 
issued to assemble thirty thousand troops, the command of 
which was given to Broglio, one of the new-intended ministry, 
who was recalled from the country for this purpose. But as 
some management was necessary to keep this plan concealed 
till the moment it should be ready for execution, it is to this 
policy that a declaration made by Count d’Artois must be at¬ 
tributed, and which is here proper to be introduced. 

It could not but occur that while the malcontents continued 
to resort to their chambers separate from the national assem¬ 
bly, that more jealousy would be excited than if they were 
mixed with it, and that the plot might be suspected : but as 
they had taken their ground, and now wanted a pretence for 
quitting it, it was necessary that one should be devised. This 
was effectually accomplished by a declaration made by Count 
d’Artois, that ‘ if they took not a part in the national assembly , 
the life of the king would be endangered f on which they quit¬ 
ted their chambers and mixed with the assembly in one body. 

At the time this declaration was made, it was generally 
treated as a piece of absurdity in Count d’Artois, and calcu¬ 
lated merely to relieve the outstanding members of the two 
chambers from the diminutive situation they were put in ; 
and if nothing more had followed this conclusion would have 
been good. But as things best explain themselves by their 
events, this apparent union was only a cover to the machina¬ 
tions that were secretly going on ; and the declaration accom¬ 
modated itself to answer that purpose. In a little time the 
national assembly found itself surrounded by troops, and 
thousands daily arriving. On this a very strong declaration 
was made by the national assembly to the king, remonstrating 
on the impropriety of the measure, and demanding the reason. 
The king, who was not in the secret of this business, as him¬ 
self afterward declared, gave substantially for answer, that he 
had no other object in view than to preserve public tranquillity, 
which appeared to be much disturbed. 

But in a few days from this time the plot unravelled itself. 
M. Neckar and the ministry were displaced, and a new one 
formed of the enemies of the revolution ; and Broglio, with 
between twenty-five and thirty thousand foreign troops, was 
arrived to support them. The mask was now thrown off, and 
matters w r ere come to a crisis. The event was, that in the 
space of three days the new ministry and their abettors found 
it prudent to fly the nation ; the bastile was taken, and Brog¬ 
lio and his foreign troops dispersed, as is already related in a 
former part of this work.” 


12 


90 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


We shall now introduce Mr. Paine’s description of the 
taking of the bastile, and then proceed with his life, or his 
connexion with these events and their consequences. 

“The mind can hardly picture to itself a more tremendous 
scene than which the city of Paris exhibited at the time of 
taking the bastile, and for two days before and after, nor 
conceive the possibility of its quieting so soon. At a distance, 
this transaction has appeared only as an act of heroism stand- 
ing on itself: and the close political connexion it had with 
the revolution is lost in the brilliancy of the achievement. 
Rut we are to consider it as the strength of the parties, brought 
man to man, and contending for the issue. The bastile was 
to be either the prize or the prison of the assailants. The 
downfall of it included the idea of the downfall of despotism ; 
and this compounded image was become as figuratively united, 
as Bunyan’s Doubting Castle and giant Despair. 

The national assembly before and at the time of taking the 
bastile, was sitting at Versailles, twelve miles distant from 
Paris. About a week before the rising of the Parisians and 
their taking the bastile, it was discovered that a plot was 
forming, at the head of which was the Count d’Artois, the 
king’s youngest brother, for demolishing the national assem 
bly, seizing its members, and thereby crushing, by a coup dt. 
main , all hopes and prospects of forming a free government. 
For the sake of humanity, as well as of freedom, it is well this 
plan did not succeed. Examples are not wanting to show 
how dreadfully vindictive and cruel are all old governments, 
when they are successful against what they call a revolt. 

This plan must have been some time in contemplation ; be¬ 
cause, in order to carry it into execution, it was necessary to 
collect a large military force round Paris, and to cut off the 
communication between that city and the national assembly 
at Versailles. The troops destined for this service were 
chiefly the foreign troops in the pay of France, and who, for 
this particular purpose, were drawn from the distant provinces 
where they were then stationed. When they were collected, 
to the amount of between twenty-five and thirty thousand, it 
was judged time to put the plan into execution. The minis¬ 
try who were then in office, and who were friendly to the 
revolution, were instantly dismissed, and a new ministry 
formed of those who had concerted the project:—among 
whom was Count de Broglio, and to his share was given the 
command of those troops. The character of this man, as 
described to me in a letter which I communicated to Mr. 
Burke before he began to write his book, and from an 
authority which Mr. Burke well knows was good, was that of 
‘ a high-flying aristocrat, cool, and capable of every mischief.’ 


TAKING THE BASTILE. 


91 


While these matters were agitating, the national assembly 
stood in the most perilous and critical situation that a body 
of men can be supposed to act in. They were the devoted 
victims, and they knew it. They had the hearts and wishes 
of their country on their side, but military authority they had 
none. The guards of Broglio surrounded the hall where the 
assembly sat, ready, at the word of command, to seize their 
persons, as had been done the year before to the parliament 
in Paris. Had the national assembly deserted their trust, or 
had they exhibited signs of weakness or fear, their enemies 
had been encouraged, and the country depressed. When the 
situation they stood in, the cause they were engaged in, and 
the crisis then ready to burst which should determine their 
personal and political fate, and that of their country, and 
probably of Europe, are taken into one view, none but a heart 
callous with prejudice, or corrupted by dependance, can avoid 
interesting itself in their success. 

The archbishop of Vienne was at this time president of the 
national assembly; a person too old to undergo the scene that 
a few days, or a few hours, might bring forth. A man of 
more activity, and bolder fortitude, was necessary ; and the 
national assembly chose (under the form of vice-president, for 
the presidency still rested in the archbishop) M. de la Fayette; 
and this is the only instance of a vice-president being chosen. 
It was at the moment this storm was pending, July 11, that a 
declaration of rights was brought forward by M. de la Fayette, 
and is the same which is before alluded to. It was hastily 
drawn up, and makes only a part of a more extensive declara¬ 
tion of rights, agreed upon and adopted afterward by the 
national assembly. The particular reason for bringing it for¬ 
ward at this moment (M. de la Fayette has since informed me) 
was, that if the national assembly should fall in the threatened 
destruction that then surrounded it, some trace of its princi¬ 
ples might have a chance of surviving the wreck. 

Everything was now draAving to a crisis. The event was 
freedom or slavery. On one side an army of nearly thirty 
thousand men ; on the other an unarmed body of citizens, for 
the citizens of Paris on whom the national assembly must 
then immediately depend, were as unarmed and undisciplined 
as the citizens of London are now. The French guards had 
given strong symptoms of their being attached to the national 
cause; but their numbers were small, not a tenth part of the 
force which Broglio commanded, and their officers were in 
the interest of Broglio. 

Matters being now ripe for execution, the neAV ministry 
made their appearance in office. The reader will carry in his 
mind, that the bastile was taken the 14th of July: the point 
of time I am now speaking to, is the 12th. As soon as the 
news of the change of the ministry reached Paris in the after- 


92 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


noon, all the play-houses and places of entertainment, shops 
and houses, were shut up. The change of ministry was con¬ 
sidered as the prelude of hostilities, and the opinion was 
rightly founded. 

The foreign troops began to advance toward the city. The 
Prince de Lambesc, who commanded a body of German cav¬ 
alry, approached by the palace of Louis XV. which connects 
itself with some of the streets. In his march he insulted and 
struck an old man with his sword. The French are remarka¬ 
ble for their respect to old age, and the insolence with which 
it appeared to be done, uniting with the general fermentation 
they were in, produced a powerful effect, and a cry of ‘ To arms ! 
to arms /’ spread itself in a moment over the whole city. 

Arms they had none, nor scarcely any who knew the use of 
them ; but desperate resolution, when every hope is at stake, 
supplies, for a while, the want of arms. Near where the 
Pr ince de Lambesc was drawn up, were large piles of stones 
collected for building the new bridge, and with these the 
people attacked the cavalry. A party of the French guards, 
upon hearing the firing, rushed from their quarters and joined 
the people ; and night coming on, the cavalry retreated. 

The streets of Paris, being narrow, are favorable for defence; 
and the loftiness of the houses, consisting of many stories, 
from which great annoyance might be given, secured them 
against nocturnal enterprises; and the night was spent in 
providing themselves with every sort of weapon they could 
make or procure : guns, swords, blacksmith’s hammers, car¬ 
penters’ axes, iron crows, pikes, halberds, pitchforks, spits, 
clubs, &c. ' 

The incredible numbers with which they assembled the next 
morning, and the still more incredible resolution they exhibit¬ 
ed, embarrassed and astonished their enemies. Little did the 
new ministry expect such a salute. Accustomed to slavery 
themselves, they had no idea that liberty was capable of such 
inspiration, or that a body of unarmed citizens would dare to 
face the military force of thirty thousand men. Every mo¬ 
ment of this day was employed in collecting arms, concerting 
plans, and arranging themselves in the best order which such 
an instantaneous movement could afford. Broglio continued 
lying round the city, but made no farther advances this day, 
and the succeeding night passed with as much tranquillity as 
such a scene could possibly produce. 

But the defence only was not the object of the citizens. 
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom 
or their slavery. They every moment expected an attack, or 
to hear of one made on the national assembly ; and in such a 
situation, the most prompt measures are sometimes the best. 
The object that now presented itself, was the bastiie ; and 
the eclat of carrying such a fortress in the face of such an 


TAKING THE BASTILE, 


93 


army, could not fail to strike terror into the new ministry, 
who had scarcely yet had time to meet. By some intercept¬ 
ed correspondence this morning, it was discovered that the 
mayor of Paris, M. de Flessels, who appeared to be in tlieii 
interest, was betraying them ; and from this discovery there 
remained no doubt that Broglio would reinforce the bastile 
the ensuing evening. It was therefore necessary to attack it 
that day ; but before this could be done, it was first necessary 
to procure a better supply of arms than they were then pos¬ 
sessed of. 

There was, adjoining to the city, a large magazine of arms 
deposited at the hospital of the invalids, which the citizens 
summoned to surrender; and as the place was not defensible, 
nor attempted much defence, they soon succeeded. Thus 
supplied, they marched to attack the bastile ; a vast mixed 
multitude of all ages and of all degrees, and armed with all 
sorts of weapons. Imagination would fail of describing to 
itself the appearance of such a procession, and of the anxiety 
for the events which a few hours or a few minutes might pro¬ 
duce. What plans the ministry was forming, were as un¬ 
known to the people within the <• ity, as what the citizens 
were doing was unknown to them ; and what movements 
Broglio might make for the support or relief of the place, 
were to the citizens equally unknown. All was mystery and 
hazard. 

That the bastile was attacked with an enthusiasm of hero¬ 
ism, such only as the highest animation of liberty could in¬ 
spire, and carried in the space of a few hours, is an event 
which the world is fully possessed of. I am not undertaking 
a detail of the attack, but bringing into view the conspiracy 
against the nation which provoked it, and which fell with the 
bastile. The prison to which the new ministry were doom¬ 
ing the national assembly, in addition to its being the high 
altar and castle of despotism, became the proper object to 
begin with. This enterprise broke up the now ministry, who 
began now to fly from the ruin they had prepared for others. 
The troops of Broglio dispersed, and himself fled also.” 


The taking of the bastile by a mob has astonished most 
persons acquainted with that fortress, and especially military 
men, who know the obstacle to such an undertaking, nor was 
it generally understood how the moat was passed, or the draw¬ 
bridge let down. We learn, however, from Robert Dale Owen, 
who had the information from La Fayette, that the chain of 
the draw-bridge was struck by a well-aimed cannon-ball, or per ¬ 
haps by a chain-shot, and the chain or chains being thus 


94 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


broken, the bridge fell, the mob rushed over, and effected the 
rest by gallantry. Sherwin thus speaks on this subject :— 

“The destruction of the bastile, and the universal diffusion 
of republican principles throughout the French empire, had 
rendered that country a singular object of terror to the English 
government. The mass of the nation saw with pleasure the 
dawn of French liberty, while the majority of their rulers be¬ 
held it as a treasonable invasion of the divine rights of monar¬ 
chy. They dreaded the spirit of inquiry which it was calcu¬ 
lated to diffuse, and they feared that the government of Eng¬ 
land, matchless and enviable as it was represented, would gain 
no credit by passing through the ordeal of national discussion. 
The first important attack that was made upon the principles 
of the French revolution was by Mr. Burke at the opening of 
parliament, 1790. This was followed by an advertisement in 
several of the newspapers, stating that he intended shortly to 
publish his opinions on the subject in the form of a pamphlet. 
The friends of liberty in this country were astonished at the 
sudden change in the politics of Mr. Burke, as he had, for sev¬ 
eral years previous, and particularly during the American war, 
been considered as a most eloquent and sincere advocate of 
public freedom. But it was shortly discovered that he had re¬ 
ceived a pension of three thousand pounds a year, and this suf¬ 
ficiently explained the grounds of his apostacy. At the period 
of his pariiamentry attack on the French revolution, he corre¬ 
sponded with Mr. Paine, and so totally unexpected was his 
conduct, that the latter had written to him from Paris but a 
few weeks before, to inform him how prosperously matters 
were going on. When the advertisement was published an¬ 
nouncing Mr. Burke’s ‘Reflections,’ Mr. Paine promised the 
friends of the French revolution that he would answer the work 
whenever it appeared. He left France in November, 1790, hav¬ 
ing been an attentive observer, if not an active adviser, of the 
important proceedings which had taken place during the pre¬ 
ceding twelve months. Mr. Burke’sbook appeared soon after 
his arrival. The popularity of the author as a literary charac¬ 
ter, the exertions of the government and its agents in all parts 
of the country, the flowery and impassioned language in which 
the historical and declamatory parts of the book were clothed, 
and the repeated delays which had retarded its appearance, 
and, consequently, increased the anxiety of the public, all con¬ 
spired to give the work an interest, which its profligacy ot 
principle and perversity of sentiment were insufficient to over¬ 
come. The mass of his readers were captivated by his elo¬ 
quence, and but a few took the trouble to reflect on the distort¬ 
ed facts, the real falsehoods, and the egregious absurdities 
with which the book abounded 


95 


BURKe’s APOSTACi”-RIGHTS OF MA^. 

Mr. Paine lost no time in preparing- his answer to the work. 
In less than three months he produced the first part of ‘ Rights 
of Man,’ in which he had combated and confuted the greater 
portion of Mr. Burke’s doctrines. The work was printed in 
February, 1791, for Mr. Johnson, of St. Paul’s Church Yard, 
but on looking it over he discovered some passages which he 
conceived were liable to be prosecuted, and he declined the 
publication. This refusal, which was altogether unexpected, 
occasioned a month’s delay. After some difficulty, a publish¬ 
er was at length found in Mr. Jordan, at No. 166, Fleet street, 
and the work was brought out on the 13th of March, 1791. 

This publication had a two-fold object in view ;—firstly, that 
of rousing the attention of the people of England to the defects 
and abuses of their own system of government; and secondly, 
that of refuting the falsehoods and exaggerations in Mr. Burke’s 
‘Reflections.’ Among other doctrines equally devoid of princi¬ 
ple, Mr. Burke had published a commentary on the proceedings 
of the parliament of 1688, in which he had argued that the peo¬ 
ple of England were bound by the declaration of the said par¬ 
liament, who had consented ‘ to submit themselves, their heirs 
and posterities for ever,’ to the heirs and posterity of William 
and Mary. Mr. Paine argues, that whatever right the parlia¬ 
ment might have to submit themselves , they had not, and could 
not, have any right to enter into any agreement or contract re¬ 
specting the government o (posterity, for, says he, ‘ every age and 
generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases , as the 
age and generation which preceded it.” A more self-evident 
position than this could not have been advanced, and the re¬ 
flections naturally arising from it were quite sufficient to over¬ 
turn the absurd conclusions which Mr. Burke had drawn from 
his omnipotent parliament of 1688. 

Our author then proceeds to refute his misrepresentations 
relative to the French revolution, and the causes of it. He 
enters into an elaborate detail of the events immediately pre¬ 
ceding the overthrow of the ancient despotism, and of the con¬ 
sequences which it was calculated to produce. In speaking 
of the destruction of the bastile, and of Mr. Burke’s silence on 
the subject, he thus beautifully expresses himself: “Notone 
glance of compassion, not one commiserating reflection, that 
I can find throughout his book, has he bestowed on those who 
lingered out the most wretched of lives—a life without hope 
in the most miserable of prisons. It is painful to behold a man 
employing his talents to corrupt himself. Nature has been 
kinder to Mr. Burke than he is to her. He is not affected by 
the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy re¬ 
semblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plu¬ 
mage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss the 
aristocratic hand that hath purloined hirn from himself, he de¬ 
generates into a composition of art, and the genuine soul of 


96 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


nature forsakes him. His hero or his heroine must be a tra¬ 
gedy victim expiring in show, and not the real prisoner of mis 
ery sliding into death in the silence of a dungeon.’ Mr. Paine 
reasons very deeply on the subject of rights, and the origin ot 
government, in opposition to the dogmatical assertions and 
high-sounding declamation of his antagonist, and concludes 
his argument with a comparison between the constitutions of 
England and France, as the latter then stood under the author 
ity of the national assembly. He ridicules the vanity of titles, 
and the policy of hereditary governors, and vindicates the con¬ 
duct of the national assembly in abolishing the one, and neu¬ 
tralizing the authority of the other. 

It has been urged against the work before us, that the au¬ 
thor had neglected to arrange his matter methodically. But 
it should be recollected, that he was compelled to follow the 
track of his opponent, which, as Mr. Paine very truly observes, 
was a complete ‘wilderness of rhapsodies.’ It was therefore 
impossible to preserve that- order which in any other work 
would be considered essentially requisite. It may, however, 
be safely asserted, that the author’s meaning is always clear, 
that his facts are always correctly stated, and that his argu¬ 
ments are incontrovertible. With respect to the merits of the 
work as a composition, its immense circulation and immedi¬ 
ate effect in exciting an inquiry into the abuses of the English 
government, will answer for this part of the subject. Perhaps 
there never was a period in which the people of that country 
were less disposed to attend to the discussion of politics than 
at the time Mr. Paine’s pamphlet made its appearance : they 
had been so often amused, and so often deceived, by men who 
pretended to advocate their rights, that they were disgusted 
with the subject, and the apostacy of Mr. Burke was a con¬ 
firmation of their sentiments. But the principles contained in 
the ‘ Rights of Man,’ opened an entirely new field of argument 
and inquiry, and the thinking part of the people began to view 
the right pf political reform, not as a boon to be expected or 
desired from the government, but as a power which the nation 
alone had the authority to exercise. 

About the middle of May Mr. Paine again went to France. 
Soon after his arrival the king fled from Paris. On this occasion 
he observed to his friend Mr. Christie : ‘You see the absurdity 
of monarchical governments. Here will be a whole nation 
disturbed by the folly of one man.’ When the king returned 
to Paris, Mr. Paine was, from an accidental circumstance, in 
considerable danger of losing his life. An immense concourse 
of persons of all classes had assembled to witness the event. 
) mong the crowd was Mr. Paine. An officer proclaimed the 
order of the national assembly, that all should be silent and 
covered. In an instant all hats were on. Mr. Paine, however, 
had lost his cockade, the emblem of liberty and equality. The 


ABBE SYEYES-HORNE TOOKE. 


97 


multitude observing that he remained uncovered, supposed 
that he was one of their enemies, and a cry instantly arose, 

‘ Aristocrat! Aristocrat! ala l ant erne ! a la lanterneV He 
was desired by those who stood near him to put on his hat, 
and it was sometime before the people could be satisfied by 
explanation. 

The Abbe Syeyes, who had been one of the principal au¬ 
thors of the new constitution, being alarmed at the partial 
excesses which had been committed by the populace, and 
falsely attributing them to the propagation of republican prin¬ 
ciples, avowed his intention of defending the monarchical 
against the democratical system of government. Mr. Paine 
readily accepted the challenge, and offered, in the short space 
of fifty pages, to controvert all the arguments which the abbe 
could bring forward in defence of his proposition. The latter 
prudently declined the contest, and thus the matter ended. 

On the thirteenth July, 1791, he returned to London, but it 
was not thought prudent that he should attend the public cele¬ 
bration of the French revolution, which was to take place on 
the following day. He was, however, present at the meeting 
which was held at the Thatched-House tavern, on the twen¬ 
tieth of August following. Of the address and declaration 
which issued from this meeting, and which was at first at¬ 
tributed to Mr. Horne Tooke, Mr. Paine was the author. A 
second meeting was intended to have been held at the same 
place, for a similar purpose, but the proprietor of the tavern 
was so much alarmed at the clamors of the government party, 
that he was under the necessity of informing Mr. Horne Tooke 
and his friends that he could not receive them. 

Mr. Paine was now very much engaged in preparing the 
second part of the ‘Rights of Man’ for the press. In the mean¬ 
time the ministry had received information that the work 
would shortly appear, and they resolved on getting it sup¬ 
pressed if possible. Having ascertained the name of the print¬ 
er, they employed* him to endeavor to purchase the copy¬ 
right of the second, together with the future copyright of the 
first part of the ‘Rights of Man.’ He began first by offering 
a hundred guineas, then five hundred, and at length a thousand; 
but Mr. Paine told him, that he ‘would never put it in the 
power of any printer or publisher to suppress or alter a work 
of his, by making him master of the copy, or give him the 

* I am aware that the circumstance of Mr. Chapman’s being employed by gov¬ 
ernment, lias been denied by the partisans of the administration. But from the 
evidence wlfc-h he gave on the trial, there is every reason to conclude that he was 
commissioned by tlie ministry or their immediate agents. He there states, that 
lie refused to yo on with the printing of the work from the fear of its being pros¬ 
ecuted. Is it probable that any man would be so extremely foolish as to offer a 
thousand guineas for the copyright of a book wlfch he dare not sell, unless he 
had some prospect in doing it distinct from the profit that was to be derived from 
the publication? The case is too clear to require farther-commentary. 

13 


98 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


right of selling it to any minister, or to any other person, 
or to treat as a mere matter of traffic that which he intended 
should operate as a principle.” 

Finding that Mr. Paine was not to be bribed by pecuniary 
offers, the ministry next attempted to impede, since they could 
not suppress, the publication of the work, and in this they 
partially succeeded. Among other things, it contained several 
propositions relative to a reduction of the public taxes. It was 
intended to have appeared on the day of the meeting of par¬ 
liament, but when the printer found it was not to be purchased, 
he suddenly stopped in the middle of the work, and informed 
Mr. Paine that he would not proceed with the remainder on 
any consideration. Another printer, therefore, became neces¬ 
sary, and this occasioned a delay of a fortnight. From the 
circumstances, elsewhere stated, there is every reason to con¬ 
clude that the proof-sheets were regularly sent to the cabi¬ 
net, and that the small addition to the pay of the soldiers, as 
well as several proposals for reducing the taxes brought for¬ 
ward by Mr. Pitt at the opening of parliament, were done for 
no other object than that of making it appear that Mr. Paine’s 
plan was merely an improvement on that of the minister. But 
even in this paltry purpose the parties in power were defeat¬ 
ed, by the exposure of the circumstances in the appendix to 
the work. 

• The ‘Rights of Man,’ part the second, combining principle 
and practice, was published by Mr. Jordan, of Fleet street, on 
the sixteenth of February, 1792. Exclusive of a dedication to 
M. de la Fayette, a preface and an introduction, it is divided 
into five chapters : chapter 1, on Society and Civilization ; 2, 
on the Origin of the present old Governments; 3, on the old 
and new Systems of Government; 4, on Constitutions; 5, 
Ways and Means of reforming the Political Condition of Eu¬ 
rope, interspersed with Miscellaneous Observations. 

The second part is, strictly speaking, a continuation of the 
first. The general design of the work appears to have been 
an investigation of the abuses of the English government; an 
examination of the hereditary and representative systems ; to 
which are added, a variety of propositions for meliorating the 
condition of the nation. In going over this work, it is difficult 
to decide whether the ability or benevolence of the writer i 
the most deserving of our admiration. The most abstruse an 
difficult subjects in the science of politics are rendered intelli¬ 
gible and interesting, and the abuses which had been accumu¬ 
lating for ages, and which antiquity seemed to have rendered 
sacred and venerable, are examined with a degree of boldness, 
which is wholly without precedent or parallel. The generality 
of those who had previously written on the subject of govern 
ment, appear to have drawn their principles from existing 
systems, and all that they had attempted to effect, was the 


pj to 


99 


“ RIGHTS OF MAN,” PART II. 

correction of a few exterior abuses, without daring to invade 
the assumed rights of the establishment itself. But our au¬ 
thor’s attack was quite of a different nature : he not only depre¬ 
cated tbe practice, but he condemned the principle ; he not 
only declared his contempt for the monarch, but his detesta¬ 
tion of the monarchy. He had studied the science of politics 
in the school of human nature, and he spoke as he felt, with¬ 
out reverencing, or even referring to the subtleties of the 
sophists who had gone before him. 

One of the great objects of the work was to do away with 
the delusive notion, that the members of the system ought to 
be expected to reform themselves. ‘There does not,’ says he, 

‘ exist within such governments, sufficient stamina whereon to 
ingraft reformation.’ ‘The right of reform is in the nation, in 
its original character, and the constitutional method would be 
by a general convention elected for the purpose.’ He likewise 
reasons with much energy in the first as well as the second 
part of the work against the prevalent opinions, with respect 
to the mixed system of government. ‘ A nation is not a body, 
the figure of which is to be represented by the human body, 
but is like a body contained within a circle, having a common 
centre, i.n which every radius meets, and that centre is formed 
by representation. To connect representation with what is 
called monarchy, is eccentric government. Representation is 
of itself the delegated monarchy of a nation, and cannot de¬ 
base itself by dividing it with another.’ Indeed, it requires 
very little reflection to discover the impossibility of uniting 
democracy with monarchy or aristocracy, for any beneficial 
purpose. The union may exist in appearance, but it never can 
take place in fact. The dignified pride of republicanism dis¬ 
owns the base connexion. 

It is impossible to form an exact estimate of the number of 
copies which were circulated of the first and second parts of 
the ‘Rights of Man,’but at a very moderate calculation there 
was at least a hundred thousand of each. When Mr. Paine 
saw the great interest which it excited, he thought the best 
mode of promulgating its principles, would be to give up the 
copyright in favor of the public, which he did about two months 
after the appearance of the second part. The probability of 
a revolution now became a subject of general discussion. The 
nation was divided into two numerous and powerful classes, 
the one consisting of the ignorant and the majority of the 
wealthy, arranged under the banners of civil and religious 
tyranny, and declaring their attachment to all that was super¬ 
stitious in the church, and all that was despotic in the state— 
while the other, more numerous and less dependant, more 
enlightened though less opulent, being convinced that the 
government in its existing state, was the cause of the greater 
nart of the misery with which the country was afflicted, were 


100 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


determined to let slip no opportunity of shaking off the load 
of oppression. That the different branches of government 
were in a state of the completest trepidation, is a fact that ad¬ 
mits of no question, and that many of the most intelligent 
men of all parties expected a revolution, is equally indisputa¬ 
ble. It is recorded of a certain ancient philosopher, who lived 
under a capricious tyrant, that he used every morning, when 
he awoke, to feel whether his head was on his shoulders; and 
the state of the English people at length became so unsettled, 
and the stability of the government so problematical, that the 
king and his ministry might almost consider themselves in as 
precarious a situation. 

On the first appearance of the ‘ Rights of Man,’ the ministry 
saw that it inculcated truths which they could not controvert, 
that it contained plans which, if adopted, would benefit at least 
nine tenths of the community, and that its principles were the 
reverse of the existing system of government ; they therefore 
judged that the most politic method would be to treat the work 
with contempt, to represent it as a foolish and insignificant 
performance, unworthy of their notice, and undeserving of the 
attention of the public. But they soon found the inefficacy of 
this mode of treatment ; the more contempt they showed, the 
more the book was read and approved of. Finding, therefore, 
that their declarations of contempt were as unsuccessful as 
their project of buying up the work, they determined upon 
prosecuting the author and publisher. Mr. Paine was not at 
all surprised at this resolution of the ministry ; indeed, he had 
anticipated it on the publication of the second part of the work, 
and to remove any doubt as to his intention of defending the 
principles which he had so effectually inculcated, he address¬ 
ed the following letter to his publisher :— 

‘February 16, 1792. 

Sir: Should any person, under the sanction of any kind of 
authority, inquire of you respecting the author and publisher 
of the “ Rights of Man,” you will please to mention me as the 
author and publisher of that work, and show to such person 
this letter. I will as soon as I am made acquainted with it, ap¬ 
pear and answer for the work personally. 

Your humble servant, 

Thomas Paine. 

Mr. Jordan, 

No. 166 Fleet Street. J 

The first intimation which Mr. Paine received of the inten¬ 
tions of the ministry, was on the 14th of May, 1792. He was 
then at Bromley in Kent, upon which he came immediately to 
town ; on his arrival, he found that Mr. Jordan had that even¬ 
ing been served with a summons to appear at the court ol 
King’s Bench on the Monday following, but for what purpose 




* ■/ 


PROSECUTION OF MR. PAINE. 


101 


was not stated. Conceiving it to be on account of the work, 
he appointed a meeting with Mr. Jordan, on the next morning, 
when he provided a solicitor, and took the expense of the de¬ 
fence on himself. But Mr. Jordan, it appears, had too much 
regard for his person to hazard its safety on the event of a 
prosecution, and he compromised the affair with the solicitor 
of the treasury, by agreeing to appear in court and plead guilty. 
This arrangement answered the purpose of both parties—that 
of Jordan in liberating him from the risk of a prosecution, and 
that of the ministry, since his plea of guilty amounted in some 
measure to a condemnation of the work. 

The following letter from Mr. Paine to Sir Archibald Mac¬ 
donald, the then attorney-general, will serve to confirm this 
statement:— 

‘ Sir : Though I have some, reason for believing that you 
were not the original promoter or encourager of the prosecu¬ 
tion commenced against the work entitled ‘ Rights of Man,’ 
either as that prosecution is intended to affect the author, the 
publisher, or the public ; yet as you appear the official person 
therein, I address this letter to you, not as Sir Archibald Mac¬ 
donald, but as attorney-general. 

You began by a prosecution against the publisher, Jordan, 
and the reason assigned by Mr. Secretary Dundas, in the house 
of commons, in the debate on the proclamation. May 25, for ta¬ 
king that measure, was, he said, because Mr. Paine could not 
be found, or words to that effect. Mr. Paine, sir, so far from 
secreting himself, never went a step out of his way, nor in the 
least instance varied from his usual conduct, to avoid any mea* 
sure you might choose to adopt with respect to him. It is on 
the purity of his heart, and the universal utility of the princi¬ 
ples and plans which his writings contain, that he rests the 
issue; and he will not dishonor it by any kind of subterfuge. 
The apartments which he occupied at the time of writing the 
work last winter, he has continued to occupy to the present 
hour, and the solicitors of the prosecution knew where to find 
him ; of which there is a proof in their own office as far back 
as the 21st of May, and also in the office of my own attorney. 

But admitting, for the sake of the case, that the reason for 
proceeding against the publisher was, as Mr. 'Dundas stated, 
that Mr. Paine could not be found, that reason can now exist 
no longer. 

The instant that I was informed that an information was pre¬ 
paring to be filed against me, as the author of, I believe, one 
of the most useful books ever offered to mankind, 1 direct¬ 
ed my attorney to put in an appearance ; and as I shall m>eet 
the prosecution fully and fairly, and with a good and upright 
conscience, I have a right to expect that no act of littleness, 
will be made use of on the part of the prosecution toward in- 


102 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAI> T E. 


fluencing the future issue with respect to the author. This ex¬ 
pression may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am in the 
possession of some matters which serve to show that the action 
against the publisher is not intended to be a real action. If, 
therefore, any persons concerned in the prosecution have found 
their cause so weak as to make it appear convenient to them 
to enter into a negotiation with the publisher, whether for 
the purpose of his submitting to a verdict, and to make use of 
the verdict so obtained as a circumstance, by way of precedent, 
on a future trial against myself; or for any other purpose not 
fully made known to me ; if, I say, I have cause to suspect 
this to be the case, I shall most certainly withdraw the defence 
I should otherwise have made, or promoted, on his (the pub¬ 
lisher’s) behalf, and leave the negotiators to themselves, and 
shall reserve the whole of the defence for the real trial. 

But, sir, for the purpose of conducting this matter with at 
least that appearance of fairness and openness that shall just¬ 
ify itself before the public, whose cause it really is (for it is 
the right of public discussion and investigation that is ques¬ 
tioned), I have to propose to you to cease the prosecution 
against the publisher ; and as the reason or pretext can no 
longer exist for continuing it against him because Mr. Paine 
could not be found, that you would direct the whole process 
against me, with whom the prosecuting party will not find it 
possible to enter into any private negotiation. 

I will do the cause full justice, as well for the sake of the 
nation, as for my own reputation. 

Another reason for discontinuing the process against the 
publisher is, because it can amount to nothing. First, be¬ 
cause a jury in London cannot decide upon the fact of publishing 
beyond the limits of the jurisdiction of London, and therefore 
the work may be republished over and over again in every 
county in the nation, and every case must have a separate pro¬ 
cess ; and by the time that three or four hundred prosecutions 
have been had, the eyes of the nation will then be fully open 
to see that the work in question contains a plan the best cal¬ 
culated to root out all the abuses of government, and to less¬ 
en the taxes of the nation upward of six millions annually. 

Secondly, because though the gentlemen of London may be 
very expert in understanding their particular professions and 
occupations, and how to make business contracts with govern 
ment beneficial to themselves as individuals, the rest of the 
nation may not be disposed to consider them sufficiently qual¬ 
ified nor authorized to determine for the whole nation on plans 
of reform, and on systems and principles of government. This 
would be in effect to erect a jury into a national convention, 
instead of electing a convention, and to lay a precedent for 
the probable tyranny of juries, under the pretence of support¬ 
ing their rights. 


PROSECUTION OF MR. PAINE. 


103 


That the possibility always exists of packing juries will nol 
be denied ; and, therefore, in all cases where government is 
the prosecutor, more especially in those where the right of 
public discussion and investigation of principles and systems 
of government is attempted to be suppressed by a verdict, or 
in those where the object of the work that is prosecuted is 
the reform of abuse and the abolition of sinecure places and 
pensions, in all these cases the verdict of a jury will itself 
become a subject of discussion ; and, therefore, it furnishes 
an additional reason for discontinuing the prosecution against 
the publisher, more especially as it is not a secret that there 
has been a negotiation with him for secret purposes, and for 
proceeding against me only. I shall make a much stronger 
defence than what I believe the treasury solicitor’s agreement 
with him will permit him to do. 

I believe that Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, and not 
being able to make any answer to the “ Rights of Man,” has 
been one of the promoters of this prosecution; and I shall re¬ 
turn the compliment to him by showing, in a future publica¬ 
tion, that he has been a masked pensioner at fifteen hundred 
pounds per annum for about ten years. 

Thus it is that the public money is wasted, and the dread 
of public investigation is produced. 

I am, sir, 

Your obedient humble servant, 

Thomas Paine. 

Sir A. Macdonald, Attorney-General .' 1 

The business being thus settled with respect to Jordan, and 
he consenting to give up the documents in his possession 
relative to the ‘Rights of Man,’in order to facilitate their 
means of proceeding against the author, they commenced their 
prosecution against the latter on the twenty-first of May. On 
the same day, they issued their celebrated proclamation against 
what they were pleased to term ‘seditious writings.’ The au¬ 
thors of this document preserved a careful silence as to the 
specific object of their alarms, but it was easy to discover that 
their intention was to cry down the ‘Rights of Man,’ and to 
influence the verdict of the jury which was to try the author. 
Another expedient was likewise resorted to—that of procuring 
addresses in favor of the existing system of government from 
the corporations, rotten boroughs, and other places under the 
influence of the ministry. Nothing could be more despicable 
than these addresses,* and nothing more glaring than the con- 

* As a contrast to these contemptible and fulsome specimens of servility, I 
subjoin the following-:— 

‘ At a meeting of the Manchester Constitutional Society, held this day, it was 
unanimously resolved— 

That the'thanks of this society are due to Mr. Thomas Paine, for the publica 


104 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


duct of their promoters, who were chiefly persons directly or 
indirectly interested in the support of public abuses: but des¬ 
picable as they were, they served in some measure the pur- 

tion of his “ Second Part of the Rights of Man, combining Principle and Practice,” 
a work of the highest importance to every nation under heaven ; but particularly 
to this, as containing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and consid¬ 
erable reduction of the public expenditure ; for the prevention of wars; for the 
extension of our manufactures and commerce ; for the education of the young j 
for the comfortable support of the aged ; for the better maintenance of the poor 
of every description ; and, finally, for lessening, greatly, and without delay, the 
enormous load of taxes under which this country at present labors. 

That this society congiatulate their countrymen at large, on the influence 
which Mr. Paine’s publications appear to have had, in procuring the repeal of 
some oppressive taxes in the present session of parliament; and they hope that 
this adoption of a small part of Mr. Paine’s ideas, will be followed by the most 
strenuous exertions to accomplish a complete reform in the present inadequate 
state of the representation of the people , and that the other great plans of public 
benefit, which Mr. Paine has so powerfully recommended, will be speedily carried 
into effect. Thomas Walker, President. 

March 13, 1792.’ Samuel Jackson, Secretary. 

Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information. 

1 This society, composed chiefly of the manufacturers of Sheffield, began about 
four months ago, and is already increased to nearly two thousand members, and 
ts daily increasing, exclusive of the adjacent towns and villages who are forming 
themselves into similar societies. 

Considering, as we do, that the want of knowledge and information in the gen 
eral mass of the people, has exposed them to numberless impositions and abuses, 
the exertions of this society are directed to the acquirement of useful knowledge, 
and to spread the same as far as our endeavors and abilities can extend. 

We declare that we have derived more true knowledge from the two works of 
Mr. Thomas Paine, entitled u Rights of Man,” parts the first and second, than 
from any author on the subject. The practice as well as the principle of govern¬ 
ment is laid down, in those works, in a manner so clear and irresistibly con¬ 
vincing, that this society do hereby resolve to give their thanks to Mr. Paine for 
his two said publications, entitled “ Rights of Man,” parts first and second. 

Resolved unanimously, That the thanks of this society be given to Mr. Paine, 
for the affectionate concern he has shown in his second work in behalf of the 
poor, the infant, and the aged ; who, notwithstanding the opulence which blesses 
other parts of the community, are, by the grievous weight of taxes, rendered the 
miserable victims of poverty and wretchedness. 

Resolved unanimously. That the thanks of this society be given to John Horne 
Tooke. Esq., for his meritorious support of our lawful privileges, as a firm advo¬ 
cate of our natural and just rights, the establishment of an equal representation 
of the people. 

Resolved unanimously, That this society disdaining to be considered either of 
a ministerial or opposition party (names of which we are tired, having bpen so 
often deceived by both) do ardently recommend it to all their fellow-citizens, into 
whose hands these resolutions may come, to confer seriously and calmly with 
each other on the subject alluded to; and to manifest to the world, that, the 
spirit of true liberty is a spirit of order ; and that to obtain j istice it is con 
sistent that we be just to ourselves. 

Resolved unanimously, That these resolutions be printed, and that a copy 
thereof be transmitted to the Society for Constitutional Information, London, 
requesting their approbation for twelve of our friends to be entered into their 
society for the purpose of establishing a connexion and a regular communication 
with that and all other similar societies in the kingdom. 

By order of the committee. 

March 14, 1792.’ 9 David Martin, Chairman. 

The above were selected from a number of others of a similar description 
They show that Mr. Paine had the approbation of the most independent portion 
of the people, though his writings were not sanctioned by the aristocracy, the 
landed interest, or any other class interested in the protection of a corrupt system 
of government 


mr. paine’s “address to the addressers.” 105 

pose of the moment in decrying the character of a work, and 
defaming the reputation of a man whose arguments were un¬ 
answerable, and whose character was irreproachable. A great 
number of pamphlets, intended as answers to the ‘Rights of 
Man,’ had issued from the press, but such was the irresistible 
nature of truth, that these puny and feeble efforts on the part 
of wounded corruption no sooner appeared than they vanished, 
and a few short weeks consigned them and their authors to 
eternal oblivion. They therefore determined that an appeal to 
popular clamor would serve their cause better than an 
appeal to reason, and the verdict of a packed jury would 
answer their purpose better than any attempt to argue the 
merits of the work on the principles of truth and justice. 

While the ministers of despotism were thus revelling in the 
anticipation of their plots and schemes for crushing the rising 
spirit of the country, the author of the ‘Rights of Man’ was 
resolved not to shrink from the discussion which his writings 
had occasioned. He was urged by several gentlemen of the 
law to prefer a bill of indictment against the publisher of the 
proclamation as a publication tending to influence the decision 
of the jury ; but conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, 
and of the strength of his arguments, he preferred meeting 
the proclamation on its own ground, and defending the princi¬ 
ples of the work which had been falsely stigmatized as wicked 
and seditious. Accordingly, about the month of August, 1792, 
he prepared another publication in defence of the ‘ Rights of 
Man’ and of his own conduct, entitled, ‘An Address to the 
Addresers on the late Proclamation.’ This is one of the 
severest pieces of satire that ever issued from the press. The 
parliamentary orators on both sides the house, anxious to 
raise a popular outcry against the ‘ Rights of Man,’ had com¬ 
menced the session, by describing to the country and to each 
other blessings which w r ere enjoyed under the British consti¬ 
tution. The praises which were bestowed upon the ‘radical 
beauties’ of this constitution, and the motives which produced 
them, are ridiculed by Mr. Paine in a fine strain of irony. 
Having informed the addressers of these symptoms of alarm, 
on the part of their mild and merciful governors, he proceeds 
to a defence of the principles of the ‘ Rights of Man.’ He re¬ 
peats his former arguments, and offers additional reasons for 
the positions he had advanced. He concludes this part of the 
pamphlet with these words, in reference to the impending 
prosecution: ‘If to expose the fraud and imposition of every 
species of hereditary ^vernment; to lessen the oppression 
of taxes ; to propose plans for the education of helpless in¬ 
fancy, and the comfortable support of the aged and distressed; 
to endeavor to conciliate nations to each other; to extirpate 
the horrid practice of war ; to promote universal peace, civili¬ 
zation, and commerce ; and to break the chains of political 

14 


106 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank, 
if these things be libellous, let me live the life of a libeller, 
and let the name of libeller be engraven on my tomb.’ 

But though Mr. Paine was determined to take every opportu¬ 
nity of defending his principles, he maintained that the case was 
deserving of a much more extensive consideration than could 
be bestowed upon it by any jury, whether special or common 
He contends in the work before us, that the question was not 
so much whether he had or had not written what crown law¬ 
yers and packed juries are in the habit of condemning as 
wicked and seditious libels, but whether individuals had the 
right to investigate systems and principles of government, 
and to publish the conclusions resulting from such investiga¬ 
tion. It was this right which the ministry were invading 
under the pretence of prosecuting the author of the ‘Rights 
of Man,’ and while in appearance they were merely attempting 
to suppress what they called the seditious writings of Mr. 
Paine, they were, in fact, aiming a deadly blow at the rights 
of every man in the country. 

It was at first Mr. Paine’s intention to have defended him¬ 
self personally, but an event happened about two months pre¬ 
vious to the trial which disconcerted his purpose. While he 
was preparing his ‘ Letter to the Addressers,’ his friends and 
admirers in France were preparing a wreath of civic honors, 
as a reward for his intrepid exertions in defence of universal 
liberty. About the middle of September, 1792, a French depu¬ 
tation announced to him inLondon, that the department of Calais 
had elected him as their representative in the national conven¬ 
tion. This was a matter of greater interest to him than the attor- 
ney-general’s prosecution, and he proceeded to Dover with the 
intention of embarking immediately to Calais. The treatment 
which he met with at Dover was disgraceful in the extreme,* 
his trunks were all opened, and the contents examined. Some 
of his papers were seized, and it is probable that the whole 
would have shared the same fate, but for the cool and steady 
conduct of Mr. Paine and his attendants. When the custom¬ 
house officers had indulged themselves in this manner as long as 
they thought proper, Mr. Paine and his friends were suffered 
to embark, and they arrived at Calais, after a pleasant passage 
of three hours. He very narrowly escaped the vigilance ot 
the despots he had provoked, for it appears that an order to 
detain him was received at Dover, in about twenty minutes 
after his embarkation. The reception which he met with at 
Calais, furnished a striking contrast to the conduct of the 
government agents at Dover. On the name of-Paine beino 
announced, the soldiers at the gates were drawn up, and the 
officers ori guard having embraced him, presented him with 

S 

* For a full account of this scandalous transaction, see his Second Letter to 
Mr. Secretary Dundas. dated Calais, September 15, 1792. 


MR. PAINE’S HONORS IN FRANCE. 


107 


tlie national cockade. A very pretty woman, who was stand¬ 
ing by, desired she might have the honor of putting it in his 
hat, expressing her hopes that he would continue his exertions 
in favor of liberty, equality, and France. A salute was then 
fired from the battery, to announce the arrival of their new 
representative. This ceremony being over, he walked to 
Deissein’s, in the Rue de CEgalite (formerly Rue de Roi ), the 
men, women, and children, crowding around him, and calling 
out ‘ Vive Thomas Paine!’ He was then conducted to the 
town-hall, and there presented to the municipality, who with 
the greatest affection embraced their representative. The 
mayor addressed him in a short speech, which was interpreted 
to him by his friend and conductor, M. Audibert, to which 
Mr. Paine, laying his hand on his heart, replied, that his life 
should be devoted to their service. 

At the inn he was waited upon hy the different persons in 
authority, and by the president of the Constitutional society, 
who desired he would attend their meeting of that night: he 
cheerfully complied with the request, and the whole town 
would have been there, had there been room : the hall of the 
4 Minimes ’ was so crowded that it was with the greatest diffi¬ 
culty they made way for Mr. Paine to the side of the president. 
Over the chair he sat in, was placed the bust of Mirabeau, and 
the colors of France, England, and America united. A speaker 
acquainted him from the tribune with his election, amid the 
plaudits of the people. For some minutes after this ceremony, 
nothing was heard but ‘ Vive la Nation! Vive Thomas Paine,’ 
in voices male and female. 

On the following day an extra meeting was appointed to be 
held in the church in honor of their new deputy to the conven¬ 
tion, the Minimes being found quite suffocating from the vast 
concourse of people which had assembled on the previous oc¬ 
casion. A play was performed at the theatre on the evening 
after his arrival, and a box was specifically reserved ‘ for the 
author of the “Rights of Man,” the object of the English 
proclamation.’ 

Mr Paine was likewise elected as deputy for Abbeville, 
Beauvais, and Versailles, as well as for the department of Calais, 
but the latter having been the first in their choice, he preferred 
being their representative. 

After remaining with his constituents a short time, he pro 
ceeded to Paris in order to take his seat as a member of the 
National Assembly. On the road he met with similar honors 
to those which he had received at Calais. As soon as he had 
arrived at Paris, he addressed a letter to the people of France 
thanking his fellow-citizens for adopting him as their deputy 
to the convention. 

Mr. Paine was, shortly after his arrival in Paris, appointed 
a member of the committee for framing the new constitution 


108 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


While he was peaceably and patriotically performing' the duties 
of his station, the ministry of England were using every 
effort to counteract the (to them) dangerous principles which 
he had disseminated. For this purpose they filed a number 
of informations against the different individuals who had re¬ 
tailed the work. The trial of Mr. Paine came on at Guildhall, 
on the 18th of December, before Lord Kenyon ,'* and a special 
jury. The former being pensioned, and the latter being pack¬ 
ed, a verdict of guilty followed as a matter of course. The 
proceedings on this trial are not of much interest, except as 
they tend to develop the inquisitorial character of an English 
court of law in matters of libel. The attorney-general had se¬ 
lected a few passages from the second part of the ‘Rights of 
Man,’ which he thought were most likely to answer his pur¬ 
pose, and these, in the verbose vulgarity of the law, he stigma¬ 
tized as false, wicked, scandalous, and seditious. He was pru¬ 
dent enough to refrain from any attempt to prove the truth of 
his charge, well knowing that, with such a judge and such a 
jury, abuse would be received as a substitute for argument, and 
the coarsest and most improbable calumnies would be admitted 
as evidence of the writer’s evil intention. The greater part 
of his speech to the jury was taken up with a comment on a 
letter relative to the prosecution, which Mr. Paine had written 
to him from Paris. In this letter he says : ‘ Had not my duty 
as a member of the national convention of France called me 
from England, I should have stayed to have contested the injus- 

* This man was one of the most cruel, vindictive, and merciless characters that 
ever disgraced the bench of a British court of justice. As an illustration of his 
conduct, the following anecdote will be sufficient: in the year 1799, a gentleman 
with whom I have the pleasure of being acquainted, of the name of Waddington. 
speculated very largely in hops. It is the custom, and has been so time out of 
mind, to purchase many of the hops of the growers before they are gathered, and 
to give so much a pound for them when gathered and put into bags. Mr. Wad¬ 
dington (who was an opulent banker, and whose character, as a commercial man, 
stood veiy high), about the time he was making large purchases of this sort, took 
the lead in calling a meeting in the city of London to petition against the war. 
The myrmidons of Pitt were set to work to discover how he might be annoyed. They 
trumped up a charge of forestalling against him for having purchased hops before 
they were brought to market. Nothing could be more unfounded than this charge, 
seeing that it had been the practice of thousands of persons for perhaps more than 
a century. In the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, Charles II., and Anne, 
divers acts of parliament had been passed against forestalling, regrating, engros¬ 
sing, &c. But in time it was discovered that these acts were not only foolish, but 
mischievous, and in the 12th year of the reign of the present king, the whole of 
them were repealed, npon the ground that they tended to produce dearth and 
misery. But the common law had not been repealed, or at least Kenyon said so. 
Upon this was Mr. Waddington indicted, and ajury, packed for the purpose, found 
him guilty of dealings as honest and common as any in the country: in conse¬ 
quence of this verdict, the wicked and malignant judge sentenced this worthy and 
respectable man to be imprisoned as well as fined, which, considering that it dis¬ 
solved all his contracts, produced a forfeiture of his depnsites, and caused a run 
upon his house and his bank, was, in fact, sentencing him to ruin, and almost 
to actual beggary. The result of these proceedings brought forth a number of 
informations against forestallers—fortunately for Kenyon he died soon after, and 
his successor declared that not to be an offence, which Kenyon had declared to be 
an offence for the sole purpose of ruining a man whom Pitt and his colleagues had 
marked out for destruction. 


PERSONS PERSECUTED. 


109 


lice of that prosecution ; not upon my own account, for I 
cared not about the prosecution, but to have defended the 
principles 1 had advanced in the work.’ He likewise delivers 
his opinion very freely, upon the capacity of the reigning king, 
and the profligacy of his sons, and very pointedly asks the 
attorney-general, whether he conceives such persons are 
necessary to the government of a nation 1 Mr. Erskine con¬ 
tended against the legal right of the prosecutor to avail him¬ 
self of the contents of this letter, but the judge overruled the 
objection. Indeed the whole of the proceedings seem to have 
been marked out beforehand, and the trial seems to have been 
nothing but a convenient farce. Mr. Erskine addressed the 
iury for some hours, but his speech was rather an evasion of 
the charge, than a justification of the principles he professed 
to defend. It was, as Mr. Paine observed, on seeing the report 
of the trial, ‘ a good speech for himself, but a very poor defence 
of the “Rights of Man.”’ The jury found a verdict for the 
crown, without the trouble of deliberation. 

With respect to the different retailers of the work against 
whom informations were filed, their fate now became pretty 
evident. The ministry were not satisfied with punishing the 
venders of ‘ Rights of Man ;’ they likewise instituted prosecu¬ 
tions against the publishers of the ‘ Letter to the Addressers' 
and obtained several convictions. The following statement 
contains, I believe, a correct account of the number of prose¬ 
cutions against these works:— 

A LIST OF THE PERSONS WIIO HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED FOR THE 
PUBLICATION OF PAINE’S WORKS. 

December 18, 1792. Thomas Paine, ‘ Rights of Man, Part 
II.’ convicted ; went to France previous to the trial. 

February 26, 1793. Thomas Spence, ‘Rights of Man, Part II.’ 
flaw in the indictment; acquitted. 

William Holland. k Address to the Addressers,’ one year’s 
imprisonment, and £100 fine. 

H. D. Symonds. ‘Rights of Man,’ two years imprisonment, 
and £20 fine. ‘Letter to the Addressers,’ one year’s im¬ 
prisonment, £100, and two sureties of £250 each, and self 
for £500, for three years, and imprisonment till the fine be 
paid and sureties given. 

April 15. Thompson, printer, Birmingham, ‘ Rights of Man’ 
and ‘Address to the Addressers;’ acquitted. 

April 17. Richard Phillips, printer, Leicester, ‘ Rights of 
Man ;’ eighteen months’ imprisonment. 

May 8. J. Ridgway, bookseller, London ; ‘ Rights of Man,’ 
one year’s imprisonment, and £100. ‘Letter to the Addres¬ 
sers,’ one year’s imprisonment, and £100 fine ; in each case, 


110 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


two sureties of £250 each, and self for £500 for three years, 
and imprisonment till the fine be paid, and sureties given. 

June 3. D. I. Eaton, ‘Rights of Man:’ verdict which 
amounted to an acquittal. July 11. Do. ‘Address to the Ad¬ 
dressers do. 

Richard Peart and William Belcher, ‘Address to the Addres¬ 
sers,’ and ‘ Rights of Man ;’ imprisonment three months. 

August 10. Messrs. Robinsons, ‘Rights of Man ;’ fine. 

Daniel Holt, bookseller, Newark, ‘ Address to the Addres¬ 
sers four years’ imprisonment, and £50 fine. 

These prosecutions, though they were far from tranquillizing 
or satisfying the public mind, were certainly followed by one 
of their intended effects, that of suppressing the circulation of 
the work. Such was the acrimony with which the admirers ot 
Mr. Paine were persecuted in all parts of the country, that it 
was regarded as highly dangerous for any person to be found 
with the book in his possession ; for though the law took no 
cognizance of such an act, the individual became a marked ob¬ 
ject of destruction, and so vigilant were the agents of tyranny; 
that their malice was sure to be gratified by one means or 
other. On the trials of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall, the cir¬ 
cumstance of their having patronised the ‘ Rights of Man’ was 
made a very material ground for the charge of high treason, 
and though the accusation failed, the obloquy, which by this 
and other means was cast upon the work, tended very greatly 
to prevent its farther dissemination.” 

We have hitherto only noticed the public character of Mr. 
Paine in England. Before we follow him into France, we 
shall extract from Clio Rickman’s life of Paine, an article on 
his civil, social, or domestic habits, observing that Mr. 
Rickman was his friend and companion, a man of amiable dis¬ 
position, extensively known, and esteemed wherever known. 
We knew the family, and are at this time intimate with those 
who were familiar with and companions of Mr. Rickman. 
This gentleman remarks :— 

“ Mr. Paine’s life in London was a quiet round of philo¬ 
sophical leisure and enjoyment. It was occupied in writing, in 
a small epistolary correspondence, in walking about with 
me to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee¬ 
houses and public places, or being visited by a select few. 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French and American ambas¬ 
sadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the painter, Mrs 
Wolstonecroft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr 
Priestly, Dr Towers, Colonel Oswald, the walking Stewart, 


i 


MR. PAINE AND THE FRENCH CONVENTION. Ill 

Captain Sampson Perry, Mr. Tuflin, Mr. William Choppm, 
Captain de Stark, Mr. Horne Tooke, &c., &c.,were among the 
number of his friends and acquaintance ; and, of course, as he 
was my inmate, the most of my associates were frequently his. 
At this time he read but little, took bis nap after dinner, and 
played with my family at some game in the evening, as chess, 
dominoes, or draughts, but never at cards ; in recitations, sing¬ 
ing, music, &c. ; or passed it in conversation : the part he took 
in the latter was always enlightened, full of information, enter¬ 
tainment, and anecdote. Occasionally we visited enlightened 
friends, indulged in domestic jaunts and recreations from 
home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Piccadilly, with 
his old friend, the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers 
from France, and different parts of Europe and America. 

When by ourselves we sat very late, and often broke m on 
the morning hours, indulging the reciprocal interchange of 
affectionate and confidential intercourse. ‘ Warm from the 
heart and faithful to its fires,’ was that intercourse, and gave 
to us the ‘feast of reason and the flow of soul.’ ” 

“ To return to Mr. Paine and the French convention. On the 
25th of July, 1792, the Duke of Brunswick issued his sangui¬ 
nary manifesto : in this he stated that the allies were resolved 
to inflict the most dreadful punishments on the national as¬ 
sembly, and on the city of Paris, for their treatment of the 
royal family ; he even went so far as to threaten to give up 
the place to military execution. The publication of this doc¬ 
ument threw the people of Paris into a state of complete con¬ 
fusion. They became frantic and furious, and the manifesto, 
instead of lulling them into repose, drove them to deeds of 
desperation. A party was soon formed in the convention for 
putting the king to death, and the agitated condition of the 
people facilitated the design. Mr. Paine labored hard to pre¬ 
vent this object from being carried into execution, but though 
his efforts produced a few converts to his doctrine, the major¬ 
ity of his colleagues were too enraged with the duplicity of 
the king, and the detestable conduct of the foreign monarchs, 
with whom he was leagued, to listen to anything short of the 
most unlimited vengeance. The conduct of Louis was too 
reprehensible to be passed over in silence ; Mr. Paine therefore 
voted that he should be tried, but when the question whether 
he should be condemned to death, was brought forward, he 
opposed it by every argument in his power. His exertions 
were, however, ineffectual, and sentence of death was passed, 
though by a very small majority. Mr. Paine was determined 
to let slip no opportunity of protesting against this measure, 
nnd when the question, whether the sentence should be carried 
into execution, was discussed, he combated the proposition 
with great energy As he was not in the habit of pronouncing 


112 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


French, one of the secretaries read his discourse translated 
from the original English. 

It is evident that his reasoning was thought very persuasive, 
since those who had heard the discourses of Buzot, Condorcet, 
and Brissot, to the same purpose without interruption, broke 
out in murmurs while Paine’s opinion was reading; and 
Marat, at length, losing all patience, exclaimed that Paine was 
a quaker, and insinuated that his mind being contracted by 
the narrow principles of his religion, was incapable of the 
liberality that was requisite for condemning men to death. 
This shrewd argument not being thought convincing, the 
secretary continued to read, that ‘ the execution of the 
sentence, instead of an act of justice, would appear to all the 
world, and particularly to their allies, the American States, as 
an act of vengeance, and that if he were sufficiently master of 
the French language, he would, in the name of his brethren of 
America, present a petition at their bar against the execution 
of the sentence.’ Marat and his associates said that these 
could not possibly be the sentiments of Thomas Paine, and 
that the assembly was imposed upon by a false translation. 
On comparing it with the original, however, it was found 
correct. 

Though these exertions were frustrated, they were attended 
with one effect, that of rendering Mr. Paine an object of hatred 
among the most violent actors in the revolution. They 
found that he could not be induced to participate in their acts 
of cruelty ; they dreaded the opposition which he might make 
to these sanguinary deeds, and they therefore marked him out 
as a victim to be sacrificed the first opportunity. 

The humanity of Mr. Paine was, indeed, one of the most 
prominent features in his character, and it was equally a 
matter of indifference to him whether the exercise of this 
high attribute of the human heart was required on a trivial or 
important, a public or private occasion. Of his strict atten¬ 
tion to his public duty in this respect, even at the hazard of 
his own safety, we have a convincing proof in his opposition 
to the execution of the king, and of his humane and .charitable 
disposition in a private point of view, the following circum¬ 
stances are sufficient to warrant the most unqualified con¬ 
clusion. 

Mr. Paine happened to be dining one day with about twenty 
friends at a coffee-house in the Palais Egalile, now the Palais 
Royal, when, unfortunately for the harmony of the company, 
a captain in the English service contrived to introduce him¬ 
self as one of the party. The military gentleman was a 
strenuous supporter of the constitution in church and state, 
and a decided enemy of the French revolution. After the 
cloth was drawn, the conversation chiefly turned on the state 
of affairs in England, and the means which had been adopted 


MU. PAINE AND MAJOR MUNROE. 


113 


by the government to check the increase of political knowl 
edge. Mr. Paine delivered his opinion very freely, and much 
to the satisfaction of every one present, with the exception of 
Captain Grimstone, who returned his arguments by calling 
him a traitor to his country, with a variety of terms equally 
opprobious. Mr. Paine treated his abuse with much good 
humor, which rendered the captain so furious, that he walked 
up to the part of the room where Mr. Paine was sitting, and 
struck him a violent blow, which nearly knocked him off his 
seat. The cowardice of this behavior from a stout young man 
toward a person of Mr. Paine’s age (he being then upward of 
sixty) is not the least disgraceful part of the transaction. 
There was, however, no time for reflections of this sort; an 
alarm was instantly given, that the captain had struck a citizen 
deputy of the convention, which was considered an insult to 
the nation at large ; the offender was hurried into custody, 
and it was with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Paine prevented 
him from being executed on the spot. 

It ought to be observed, that an act of the convention had 
awarded the punishment of death to any one who should be 
convicted of striking a deputy: Mr. Paine was therefore 
placed in a very unpleasant situation. He immediately ap¬ 
plied to Barrere, at that time president of the committee of 
public safety, for a passport for his imprudent adversary, who 
after much hesitation complied with his request. It likewise 
occasioned Mr. Paine considerable personal inconvenience to 
procure his liberation ; but even this w T as not sufficient; the 
captain was without friends, and penniless, and Mr. Paine 
generously supplied him with money to defray his travelling 
expenses. 

The gentleman who favored me with the account of the 
foregoing circumstance, has likewise informed me of another 
anecdote equally honorable to Mr. Paine’s feelings. A Major 
Munroe, who at the beginning of the revolution was employed 
by Mr. Pitt to send an account to the ministry of what was 
going on in Paris, remained there till after the declaration of 
war, when he, with many others, was sent to prison. He 
had previously occupied the same hotel with Mr. Paine, and 
though the latter was aware of his errand, he found him an 
intelligent companion. When the major was imprisoned, he 
applied to Mr. Paine, who after considerable trouble obtained 
his release. The major was recently living, and it is but fair to 
say, that he has often observed to his friends, he should ever 
feel indebted to the kindness of Mr. Paine, for the interest he 
employed in procuring his discharge. 

I have already noticed the feeling of hostility with which 
our author’s exertions in the cause of humanity were received 
by some of the members of the convention. Those who had 

15 


114 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 


deserted the principles of liberty, and who, from the most, 
treacherous and tyrannical motives, were anxious to plunge the 
nation into a. state of anarchy, were naturally the enemies of 
the. great defender of the ‘ Rights of Man,’ and they were de¬ 
termined to gratify their vengeance, whenever a possibility of 
so doing should offer itself. Before entering into a descrip¬ 
tion of the steps that were taken for this purpose I will give 
the reader an account of the mode in which he passed his time 
at the period we are speaking of. 

‘ In Paris, in 1793,’ he observes, ‘ I had lodgings in the Rue 
Fauxbourg St. Denis , No. 63. They w r ere the most agreeable 
for situation of any I ever had in Paris, except that they were 
too remote from the convention, of which I was then a mem¬ 
ber. But this was recompensed by their being also remote 
from the alarms and confusion into which the interior of Paris 
was then often thrown. The news of those things used to 
arrive to us, as if we were in a state of quietude in the country. 
The house, which was enclosed by a wall and gateway from 
the street, was a good deal like an old mansion farm-house, 
and the court-yard was like a farm-yard stocked with fowls, 
ducks, turkeys, and geese ; which, for amusement, we used to 
feed out of the windows of the parlor on the ground-floor. 
There were some huts for rabbits, and a stye with two pigs. 
Beyond, was a garden of more than an acre of ground, well 
laid out, and stocked with excellent fruit-trees. The orange, 
apricot, and the green-gage plum, w r ere the best I ever tasted ; 
and it is the only place where I saw the wild cucumber, which 
they told me is poisonous. The place had formerly been 
occupied by some curious person.’ 

In allusion to the dreadful proceedings which were making 
such havoc among the best patriots of France, he continues :— 

‘As for myself, I used to find some relief by walking alone 
in the garden after it was dark, and cursing with hearty good 
will the authors of that terrible system that had turned the 
character of the revolution I had been proud to defend. 

I went but little to the convention, and then only to make 
my appearance ; because I found it impossible for me to join 
in their tremendous decrees, and useless and dangerous to 
oppose them. My having voted and spoken extensively, more 
so than any other member, against the execution of the king, 
had already fixed a mark upon me : neither dared any of my 
associates in the convention to translate, and speak in French 
for me anything I might have dared to write. Pen 
and ink were then of no use to me. No good could be done 
by writing, and no printer dared to print ; and wdiatever I 
might have written for my private amusement, as anecdotes 
of the times, would have been continually exposed to be ex¬ 
amined, and tortured into any meaning that the rage of party 
might fix upon it; and as to softer subjects, my heart was in 


115 


“ AGE OF REASON,” PART I. 

distress at the fate of my friends, and my harp was hung 
upon the weeping willows.’ 

At this period the national convention was divided into 
factions, each intent on their own aggrandizement, and each 
possessing a powerful host of partisans among the people. 
Terror, hatred, suspicion, revenge, and every other dark and 
deadly passion, had supplanted the just, liberal, and humane 
principles which marked the commencement of the revolution, 
and the wide empire of France became one vast slaughter¬ 
house, where the supporters of freedom and the advocates of 
despotism were alternately sacrificed at the shrine of factious 
violence. The exertions of the friends of liberty sooner 
increased than lessened the effects of the storm, and to defend 
the interests of truth and the rights of the people, was to in¬ 
vite destruction. The voice of humanity was mute, for the 
ear of humanity was closed. It is painful to recur (o these 
heart-rending scenes, but justice requires it, and more par¬ 
ticularly so, as Mr. Paine was very near falling a victim to the 
violence of the contending factions. 

The gentle, conciliating, and open method in which he had 
conducted himself, had prevented the possibility of impeaching 
his political conduct, and to this we must attribute the circum¬ 
stance of his remaining so long at liberty. The first attempt 
that was made against him, was by means of an act of the 
convention, which decreed that all persons residing in France 
who were born in England should be imprisoned ; but as Mr. 
Paine was a member of the convention, and had been compli¬ 
mented with the title of ‘ citizen of France,’ the decree did not 
extend to him. A motion was afterward made by Bourdon 
de l’Oise, for expelling foreigners from the convention. It 
was evident from the speech of the mover, that Mr. Paine was 
the principal object aimed at, and as soon as the expulsion was 
effected, an application was made to the two committees of 
public safety and general surety, of which Robespierre was 
the dictator, and they immediately put him in arrestation 
under the former decree for imprisoning persons born in Eng¬ 
land. On his way to the Luxembourg he contrived to call 
upon his intimate friend and associate, Joel Barlow, with 
whom he left the manuscript of the first part of the ‘Age of 
Reason.’ * This work he intended to be the last of his life, 
but the proceedings in France, during the year 1793, induced 
him to delay it no longer. ‘ The circumstance,’ says he, ‘that 
has now taken place in France, of the total abolition of the 
whole national order of priesthood, and of everything apper¬ 
taining to compulsive systems of religion, and compulsive 
articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, but 
rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest in 


* See Mr Barlow’s letter, page 135 


116 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of govern¬ 
ment, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, 
and of the theology that is true.’ At the time this performance 
was written, Mr. Paine was in almost daily expectation of 
being sent to the guillotine, where many of his friends had 
already perished ; the doctrines, therefore, which it inculcates, 
must be regarded as the sentiments of a dying man. This is 
at least a conclusive proof that the work was not the result of 
a wish to deceive, that, whether true or false, it was the effu¬ 
sion of a disinterested mind ; and, in ordinary cases, the fact 
of a man writing a book under such circumstances, would be 
admitted as a logical evidence of the rectitude of the doctrines 
it contained. I do not, however, intend to enter into any 
discussion relative to our author’s religious opinions, until we 
arrive at the second part of the work. It is, therefore, only 
necessary at present, to observe, that Mr. Paine had measured 
his time with such a degree of precision, that he had not finish¬ 
ed the book more than six hours before he was arrested and 
conveyed to the Luxembourg.* 

Mr. Paine had remained in prison about three weeks, when 
it was ascertained to the satisfaction of every one in Paris, 
exceDt the tyrants who had sent him there, that he had com- 
mitted no offence ; and in consequence of this, the Americans 
residing in that city, went in a body to the convention to de¬ 
mand the liberation of their fellow-citizen and friend. 'The 
following is a copy of the address presented by them to the 
president of the convention ; an address which sufficiently 
shows the high estimation in which Mr. Paine was at this 
time held by the citizens of the United States :— 

‘Citizens! The French nation had invited the most illus¬ 
trious of all foreign nations to the honor of representing her. 

Thomas Paine, the apostle of liberty in America, a profound 
and valuable philosopher, a virtuous and esteemed citizen, 
came to France and took a seat among you. Particular cir¬ 
cumstances rendered necessary the decree to put under arrest 
all the English residing in France. 

Citizens! representatives! We come to demand of you 
Thomas Paine, in the name of the friends of liberty and in 
the name of the Americans, your brothers and allies ; was 
there anything more wanted to obtain your demand we would 
tell you. Do not give to the leagued despots the pleasure of 
seeing Paine in irons. We shall inform you that the seals put 
upon the papers of Thomas Paine have been taken off, that 
the committee of general safety examined them, and far from 

* Had such a singularly favorable coincidence as this happened in the trans¬ 
actions of a Christian theological writer, it would undoubtedly have been ascribed 
to the interposition of Divine Providence, but in the present instance (whatever 
rational men may think on the subject) the faithful will perhaps find it conve¬ 
nient to attribute the circumstance to the influence of a power of quite an opposite 
character. 


MR. PAINE IN PRISON. 


117 


finding among them any dangerous propositions, they only 
found the love of liberty which characterized him all his life¬ 
time, that eloquence of nature and philosophy which made 
him the friend of mankind, and those principles of public 
morality which merited the hatred of kings, and the affection 
of his fellow-citizens. 

In short, citizens ! if you permit us to restore Thomas Paine 
to the embraces of his fellow-citizens, we offer to pledge our¬ 
selves as securities for his conduct during the short time he 
shall remain in France.’ 

The Americans who presented the foregoing address, re¬ 
ceived for answer, that ‘Mr. Paine was born in England,’ and 
it was likewise hinted to them that their attempt to reclaim 
him as a citizen of the United States, could not be listened to, 
in consequence of its not being authorized by the American 
government. 

A few’days after this, all communication between persons 
imprisoned, and any person without the prison, was cut off, by 
an order of the police. In this forlorn and solitary situation 
Mr. Paine continued for six months, and the only hope that 
remained for him was, that a new minister would arrive from 
America to supersede Morris, and that he would be authorized 
to inquire into the causes of his imprisonment; ‘ but even this 
hope;’ Mr. Paine observes, ‘ in the state in which matters were 
daily arriving, was too remote to have any consolatory effect; 
and I contented myself with the thought that I might be re¬ 
membered when it would be too late.’ 

During this long imprisonment he amused himself as well 
as such a gloomy situation would allow, by writing various 
pieces of fancy, both in poetry and prose, some of which have 
since been published. He likewise wrote a considerable pro¬ 
portion of the second part of the ‘Age of Reason ’ during his 
incarceration. When he had been in prison about eight 
months, he was seized with a violent fever, which nearly de¬ 
prived him of life, and from the effects of which he never 
afterward perfectly recovered. This fever, which rendered 
him completely insensible for more than a month, was evi¬ 
dently the means of preserving his life. Had he remained in 
health he would probably, according to the routine of the 
times, have been dragged before the tribunal, and sent to the 
guillotine, without the trouble of proving either his guilt or 
his innocence. But the fever fortunately averted the im¬ 
pending danger, and the first thing he heard of after his recov¬ 
ery was the fall of Robespierre. But the fate of this sanguinary 
man did not restore him to liberty. The desolator was 
overthrown, but his faction still remained, and, though con¬ 
siderably humbled, their hostility toward Mr. Paine was un¬ 
abated. The latter seeing that several of his fellow-prisoners 
were released, addressed a memorial to Mr. Monroe (who it 


118 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


appears had received no instructions from the American 
government respecting Mr. Paine), on the subject of his con¬ 
finement, who behaved toward him with great kindness and 
attention. The following is a copy of Mr. Monroe’s letter to 
Mr. Paine on this occasion :— 


Paris, September 18, 1794. 

‘Dear Sir : I was favored, soon after my arrival here, with 
several letters from you, and more latterly with one in the 
character of a memorial upon the subject of your confine¬ 
ment : and should have answered them at the times they were 
respectively written, had I not concluded, you would have cal¬ 
culated with certainty upon the deep interest I take in your 
welfare, and the pleasure with which I shall embrace every 
opportunity in my power to serve you. I should still pursue 
the same course, and for reasons which must obviously occur, 
if I did not find that you are disquieted with apprehensions 
upon interesting points, and which justice to you and our 
country equally forbid you should entertain. You mention 
that you have been informed you are not considered as an 
American citizen by the Americans, and that you have like¬ 
wise heard that I had no instructions respecting you by the 
government. I doubt not the persons who gave you the infor¬ 
mation meant well, but I suspect he did not even convey 
accurately his own ideas on the first point: for I presume the 
most he could say is, that you had likewise become a French 
citizen, and which by no means deprives you of being an 
American one. Even this, however, may be doubted, I mean 
the acquisition of citizenship in France, and I confess you 
have said much to show that it has not been made. I really 
suspect that this was all that the gentleman who wrote to you, 
and those Americans he heard speak upon the subject, meant. 
It becomes my duty, however, to declare to you, that I con¬ 
sider you as an American citizen, and that you are considered 
universally in that character by the people of America. As 
such you are entitled to my attention ; and so far as it can be 
given, consistently with those obligations which are mutual 
between every government and even transient passenger, you 
shall receive it. 

The congress have never decided upon the subject of citizen¬ 
ship, in a manner to regard the present case. By being with 
us through the revolution, you are of our country as abso¬ 
lutely as if you had been born there, and you are no more of 
England than every native American is. This is the true 
doctrine in the present case, so far as it becomes complicated 
with any other consideration. I have mentioned it to make 
you easy upon the only point which could give you any dis¬ 
quietude. 

It is necessary for me to tell you, how much all your coun- 


MONROE S LETTER TO PAINE. 


119 


trymen—I speak of the great mass of the people—are interested 
in your welfare. They have not forgotten the history of their 
own revolution, and the difficult scenes through which they 
passed ; nor do they review its several stages without reviving 
in their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of those who 
served them in that great and arduous conflict. The crime 
of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain, 
our national character. You are considered by them, as not 
only having rendered important services in our own revolution, 
but as being, on a more extensive scale, the friend of human 
rights, and a distinguished and able advocate in favor of pub¬ 
lic liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine, the Americans 
are not, nor can they be, indifferent. 

Of the sense which the president has always entertained of 
your merits, and of his friendly disposition toward you, you 
are too well assured, to require any declaration of it from me. 
That I forward his wishes in seeking your safety is what 1 
well know: and this will form an additional obligation on me 
to perform what I should otherwise consider as a duty. 

You are in my opinion, at present, menaced by no kind of 
danger. To liberate you will be an object of my endeavors, 
and as soon as possible. But you must, until that event shall 
be accomplished, bear your situation with patience and forti¬ 
tude ; you will likewise have the justice to recollect, that I 
am placed here upon a difficult theatre, many important ob¬ 
jects to attend to, and with few to consult. It becomes me 
in pursuit of those, to regulate my conduct with respect to 
each, as to the manner and the time, as will, in my judgment, 
be best calculated to accomplish the whole. 

With great esteem and respect consider me personally your 
friend. 

James Monroe.’ 

Mr. Paine was released from prison on the 4th of November, 
1794, having been in confinement for eleven months. 

After his liberation he was kindly invited to the house of 
Mr. Monroe, with whom he remained for about eighteen 
months. I intend to be as brief in my extracts as the subject 
will admit; but the following, which is taken from one of 
his letters, written after his return to America, is so descrip¬ 
tive of his situation while in prison, and of another narrow 
escape which he had in addition to the one already noticed, 
that I consider it necessary for the information of the reader. 

‘ I was one of the nine members that composed the first 
committee of constitution. Six of them have been destroyed. 
Syeyes and myself have survived. He by bending with the 
times, and 1 by not bending. The other survivor joined Ro¬ 
bespierre, and signed with him the warrant of my arrestation. 
After the fall of Robespierre, he was seized and imprisoned 


120 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


in his turn, and sentenced to transportation. He has since 
apologized to me for having signed the warrant, by saying, he 
felt himself in danger and was obliged to do it. 

Herault Sechelles, an acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson, and a 
good patriot, was my suppliant as member of the committee 
of constitution ; that is, he was to supply my place, if I had 
not accepted or had resigned, being next in number of votes 
to me. He was imprisoned in the Luxembourg with me, was 
taken to the tribunal and the guillotine, and I, his principal, 
was left. 

There were but two foreigners in the convention, Anacharsis 
Cloots and myself. We were both put out of the convention 
by the same vote, arrested by the same order, and carried to 
prison together the same night. He was taken to the guillo¬ 
tine, and I was again left. Joel Barlow was with us when we 
went to prison. 

Joseph Lebon, one of the vilest characters that ever existed, 
and who made the streets of Arras run with blood, was my 
suppliant as member of the convention for the department of 
the Pais de Calais. When I was put out of the convention he 
came and took my place. When I was liberated from prison, 
and voted again into the convention, he was sent to the same 
prison and took my place there, and he went to the guillotine 
instead of me. He supplied my place all the way through. 

One hundred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the 
Luxembourg in one night, and a hundred and sixty of them 
guillotined the next day, of which I know I was to have been 
one ; and the manner I escaped that fate is curious, and has all 
the appearance of accident. 

The room in which I was lodged was on the ground floor, 
and one of a long range of rooms under a gallery, and the 
door of it opened outward and flat against the wall ; so that 
when it was open the inside of the door appeared outward, and 
the contrary when it was shut. I had three comrades, fellow- 
prisoners with me, Joseph Vanhuile of Bruges, since president 
of the municipality of that town, Michael Robins, and Bastini 
of Louvain. 

When persons by scores and hundreds were to be taken out 
of prison for the guillotine, it was always done in the night, and 
those who performed that office had a private mark or signal by 
which they knew what rooms to go to, and what number to 
take. We, as I have said, were four, and the door of our room 
was marked unobserved by us, with that number in chalk ; but 
it happened, if happening is a proper word, that the mark was 
put on when the door was open and flat against the wall, and 
thereby came on the inside when we shut it at night, and the de¬ 
stroying angel passed by it. A few days after this Robespierre 
fell, and the American ambassador arrived and reclaimed me 
and invited me to his house. 


RELEASE FROM PRISON. 


121 


During the whole of my imprisonment, prior to the fall of 
Robespierre, there was no time when I could think my life 
worth twenty-four hours, and my mind was made up to meet its 
fate. The Americans in Paris went in a body to the convention 
to reclaim me, but without success. There was no party among 
them with respect to me. My only hope then rested on the 
government of America that it would remember me. But the 
icy heart of ingratitude, in whatever man it may be placed, has 
neither feeling nor sense of honor. The letter of Mr. Jefferson 
has served to wipe away the reproach, and done justice to the 
mass of the people of America.’ 

Soon after Mr. Paine’s release from prison the convention 
passed a unanimous vote to invite him to return to the seat he 
had formerly occupied. The times were still dangerous, as 
well from without as within, for the coalition of foreign despots 
was unbroken, and the constitution not settled. Mr. Paine 
however, thought proper to accept the invitation, being resolved 
to show that he was not to be alarmed either by prospects or 
retrospects of danger, and that his principles were neither to 
be perverted by disgust nor weakened by misfortune. 

He was liberated, as before stated, in November, 1794 ; his 
bodily health was at this time very much impaired by long 
confinement, and in September following he was taken danger¬ 
ously ill. He states that he had felt the approach of his dis¬ 
order for some time, which occasioned him to hasten to a con¬ 
clusion of the second part of the ‘ Age of Reason.’ This work 
was published at Paris, early in 1795, and was very shortly 
afterward reprinted in England, and the United States. At the 
time he wrote the first part of the work he was without abible, 
nor could he procure one. The investigation which it con¬ 
tained was therefore rather a general, than a detailed inquiry 
into the Jewish and Christian systems of belief. The first 
point which he attacks is the doctrine of revelation. He ad¬ 
mits the possibility, though he denies the probability of the 
Supreme Being having ever held personal communication with 
man. But even allowing this to be the case, he observes, that 
‘ revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. 
After this it is only on account of something which that person 
says was revelation made to him ; and though he may find hi m- 
*eif obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe 
it in the same manner, for it was not revelation made to me , 
and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.’* 

In this manner he proceeds to controvert the principal argu¬ 
ments in favor of Christianity. He asserts that it is a system 
founded entirely upon hearsay evidence, and that we are not 
obliged to believe it. He next endeavors to show' the similari¬ 
ty of the heathen mythology, and that of the Christians, from 

* Age of Reason, Part I. 

16 


122 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


which he infers that the latter is a copy of the former. Among 
the novel positions which he advanced, was an argument to 
prove that the word prophet had changed its original meaning, 
that in former times it was synonymous with that of poet or 
musician ; to prove this he cites the part of the Bible, where 
we are told the prophets of old performed the functions of 
their vocation by means of pipes, tabrets, horns, harps, and 
other musical instruments. Having declared his disbelief of 
what is called revealed religion, and his reasons for such dis¬ 
belief, he next gives his opinion as to what he conceives to be 
the only true word of God—the only true revelation; and as 
his ideas on this subject are of no ordinary stamp, I insert 
them in his own words, as the best mode of doing justice to 
the author :— 

‘It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions 
of a vjord of God can unite. The creation speaketh a univer¬ 
sal language, independently of human speech or human lan¬ 
guage, miltiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing 
original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it 
cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be alter¬ 
ed ; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the 
will of man whether it shall be published or not: it publishes 
itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all 
nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man 
all that is necessary for man to know of God. 

Do we want to contemplate his power 1 We see it in the immen¬ 
sity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom '( 
We see-it in the unchangeable order by which the incompre¬ 
hensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate hi? 
munificence 1 We see it in the abundance with which he fill? 
the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy I We see 
it in his not withholdingthat abundance even from the unthank¬ 
ful. In fine, do we want to know what God isl Search not 
the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might 
make, but the scripture called the Creation.’ 

It is not hazarding too much to say that the above breathes 
as pure a spirit of morality and philosophy, as anything that 
was ever written on the subject, in either ancient or modern 
times. It is superior to the bible description of the Deity, for 
it ascribes to him none of those weaknesses and passions which 
are so frequently attributed to him by the authors of that book. 
It is not at all wonderful that the ministers of a corrupt system 
of religion should calumniate the character of a work, which 
inculcates the practice of morality as the only religious duty 
that men are bound to perform, which teaches the most sub¬ 
lime and reverential ideas of the Creator of the universe, and 
which represents the intercessions of ignorant and bigoted 
priests, as unnecessary either to the present or future happi¬ 
ness of mankind—it is not at all wonderful that such men 


WATSON S APOLOGY-PERSECUTION. 


12S 


should look upon such a work with horror, and load its author 
with every epithet of calumny and reproach. They are in re¬ 
ligion, what courtiers are under a limited monarchy. Both 
parties are, in nine cases out of ten, aware of the farce, and 
they tremble at the approach of reason and investigation. 

From a great portion of the work before us, it is evident that 
Mr. Paine possessed an extensive knowledge of astronomy and 
mathematics, and the mode in which he applies these branch¬ 
es of science, to prove the ignorance of the bible writers, and 
the falsehood of their statements, is worth the reader’s atten¬ 
tion. For this, however, I must refer him to the work itself. 
The extract which I have already given will enable any person 
to form an idea of the general character of the book, its prin¬ 
ciples and tendency; I therefore proceed to offer a few obser¬ 
vations on the second part. 

This work is divided into an examination, first, of the Old, 
and, secondly, of the New Testament. In the former our 
author examines the different books of the Bible in rotation, 
and proves, very clearly, as far as the evidence of circumstan¬ 
ces can go, that they were not written by the persons to whom 
they are ascribed, and, therefore, that they are anonymous and 
without authority. He likewise reasons very forcibly against 
the various acts of horrid cruelty, and gross immorality, which 
are attributed to the Almighty by Moses, and the other reputed 
authors of the Bible. In this examination the ancient Jews 
are stripped of the disguise in which commentators generally 
clothe them, and exposed in their true character—that of the 
most ignorant and ferocious race of beings which evei disgra¬ 
ced the character of human nature. Their ignorance is in¬ 
ferred from the circumstance of there not being in the whole 
Bible more than one book in which any branch of useful or 
scientific knowledge is mentioned (the book of Job) and this 
it appears is a book of the Gentiles and not of the Jews. The 
ferocity of their character is established by the almost innu¬ 
merable and unprovoked murders with which the Scriptures 
are filled, and which are blasphemously ascribed to the God of 
mercy and eternal beneficence. 

These are the principal grounds on which our author argues 
against the divinity of the Bible. In the examination of the 
New Testament, he exposes the contradictions of the different 
writers, he cites authorities to prove that the gospels were not 
written till a long time after the evangelists are reported to have 
lived ; and that they were not formed into a book for more than 
three hundred years after the death of Christ. They were then 
collected together by the church, and it was decided by vote 
which were and which were not the word of God. 

The work likewise contains some fine ideas on the doctrine 
of immortality : these form a striking contrast to the gloomy 
and unnatural doctrines of the resurrection. 


124 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


On a superficial view of the subject it appears wonderful that 
a system of belief which is liable to so many objections, not 
only on the score of probability, but on that of the common 
principles of morality, should have obtained so general an in¬ 
fluence among mankind. But when we look at the means 
which have been used to propagate its principles, we may cease 
to be surprised at the general credence it has acquired. Its 
professors preached peace and humility, until, by the increase 
of their numbers, they were enabled to assume a more formi¬ 
dable tone, but so slow was their progress, and with such gen¬ 
eral contempt were their doctrines viewed, that even this ac¬ 
cession of strength did not take place until three or four cen¬ 
turies after the death of their founder. As the number of their 
converts increased, their temporal power became more exten¬ 
sive, and all attempts to investigate the truth of their preten¬ 
sions were put down as impious heresies. Thus, in the first 
instance, their faith was protected by its obscurity and the pro¬ 
fessed humility of its disciples ; in latter times it has been pro¬ 
moted by means of the sword, and the assiduity of the priest¬ 
hood ; while all inquiry into the probability or improbability 
of its precepts, has been suppressed by the powerful reasoning 
of the fagot and the inquisition. 

It is not to be denied that the New Testament contains some 
good moral maxims, but these are no proofs of its divinity, for 
they existed thousands of years before the appearance of Christ, 
and they will exist when all the desolating wars and shocking 
persecutions which have been occasioned by the Christian 
system of faith, shall be sunk in the Lethean stream of oblivion. 
They are inherent in human nature, and they consequently do 
not depend upon the belief of any particular system of opinions. 
It may suit the convenience of the pious teachers of our es¬ 
tablished religion, to tell us that the practice of virtue, the 
foundation of our happiness here and of our hopes hereafter, 
are dependant on the practice of their absurd ceremonies, and 
the belief of their improbable doctrines; but it is impossible 
for the reflecting mind to discover in these dogmas anything 
more than the motives of an interested priesthood, or the eflu- 
sions of a distempered imagination. The principles of moral 
virtue are essentially distinct from the belief of any existing 
system of faith, they result from the relations of a being with 
his fellow-beings ; justice toward ourselves is wisdom ; justice 
toward others is virtue. In society all is relative, there is no 
happiness independent; we are compelled to sacrifice a part 
of what we might enjoy, not to be deprived of the whole, and 
to secure a portion against all assaults. Even here the balance 
is in favor of reason. 

However laborious may be the life of the honest man, however 
encompassed with dangers, however beset with difficulties it 
may be, that of the vicious character must be more so. He can 


U AGE OF REASON,” PART II. 


125 


seldom be tranquil who stands in opposition to the interests of 
his fellow-men ; it is impossible for him to conceal from him¬ 
self that he is surrounded by enemies, or by those who are 
ready to become so, and this situation is always painful, how¬ 
ever splendid may be appearances. Let us add to these con¬ 
siderations, the sublime rectitude of instinct, which corruption 
may lead astray, but which no false philosophy can ever anni¬ 
hilate, which impels us to admire and love wisdom and gener¬ 
osity of conduct, as we do grandeur and beauty in nature and 
the arts ; and we shall have the source of human virtue, inde¬ 
pendent of every religious system of the intricacies of meta¬ 
physics, and of the impostures of priests. 

The publication of the ‘ Age of Reason ’ called forth a great 
variety of replies, but the only one which is now remembered 
is the Bishop of LlandafT’s ‘Apology for the Bible.’ It is 
much to be doubted whether this work, which is written in 
open defiance of the plainest rules of reason and logic, would 
have survived the fate of its companions in the same cause, if 
it had been written by any other person. His character in the 
world of letters, and in several of the departments in science, 
coupled with his conduct in parliament, which induced many 
to regard him as an independent promoter of the gospel, gave 
the w T ork an importance which its contents by no means de¬ 
served, and the friends of the church lost no time in publishing 
it throughout the country. Their zeal in this respect, per¬ 
haps, in some measure, answered the purpose they had in 
view, but it certainly conferred no honor on the bishop’s 
literary reputation. 

Whether the advocates of the Christian faith were or w r ere 
not conscious of the imperfections of their system, it is evi¬ 
dent they w r ere afraid of an inquiry into its merits, and a pros¬ 
ecution was commenced against Mr. Williams, the publisher 
of the ‘Age of Reason.’ By way of giving a color to this 
proceeding, they retained Mr. Erskine on the part of the 
crown, who strained every effort to procure a verdict. Mr 
Kyd made an ingenious and argumentative reply, in behalf of 
the defendant, but the jury, being special, readily found him 
guilty, June 4, 1797. Mr. Paine addressed a letter to Mr. 
Erskine on the proceedings of this trial, in which he ridicules 
the abs.urd practice of discussing theological subjects before 
such men as special juries are generally composed of, and 
cites fresh evidence in support of his former arguments 
respecting the Bible. 

Mr. Paine now attended his duty as a member of the con¬ 
vention, in which capacity he delivered his opinions whenever 
occasion required. In April, 1795, a committee was appointed 
to form another new constitution (the former one having been 
abolished) and the report of this committee v r as brought for¬ 
ward on the ‘23d of June following, by Boissy d’Anglas. This 


126 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


was the constitution of elders and youngsters, a council of 
five hundred, a council of ancients, and an executive directory 
of five. Mr. Paine wrote a speech in opposition to several of 
the articles of this constitution, which was translated and read 
to the convention by Citizen Lanthera, on the seventh of July. 
One of the subjects against which Mr. Paine contended, was 
the unjust distinction that was attempted to be made between 
direct and indirect taxes. Whatever weight these objections 
ought to have carried, they were not listened to by the con¬ 
vention, and the constitution of Boissy d’Anglas was adopted. 
By this decree the convention was formally destroyed, and as 
Mr. Paine was not afterward re-elected, it likewise termi¬ 
nated his public functions in France. 

The reign of terror having in some degree subsided, our 
author’s political pen returned to its former employment. 
About the time that he brought out the second part of the 
‘Age of Reason,’ he published several pamphlets on subjects 
less likely to inflame the passions of the bigoted arid the igno¬ 
rant, than investigations into the nature of theology. The 
principal of these are his ‘ Dissertation on first Principles of 
Government,’ ‘Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law,’ 
and the ‘Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance.’ 
The first of these is a continuation of the arguments advanced 
in the ‘ Rights of Man ;’ the second is a plan for creating in 
every country a national fund ‘ to pay to every person when ar¬ 
rived at the age of twenty-one years the sum of fifteen pounds 
sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world, and also ten 
pounds sterling, per annum, during life, to every person, now 
living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others, when they 
shall arrive at that age, to enable them to live in old age 
without wretchedness, and to go decently out of the world.’ 

This little essay contains a good deal of original thinking, 
and close reasoning, though in the present state of society 
it is not very probable that its recommendations will be ever 
adopted. The pamphlet on finance is a proof of Mr. Paine’s 
extensive knowledge on this complicated subject. The events 
of every day serve to confirm the truth of his opinions respect¬ 
ing the English system, and the agitations which have prevailed 
throughout the country rendered the fulfilment of hispredic 
tions exceedingly probable. 

In 1796, he published at Paris a ‘Letter to General Wash¬ 
ington.’ The principal subject of this letter is the treaty 
which had recently been concluded between the United States 
and Great Britain. From the articles of the treaty, Mr. Paine 
contends, that those who concluded it had compromised the 
honor of America, and the safety of her commerce, from a 
disposition to crouch to the British minister. The cold 
neglect of Mr. Washington toward Mr. Paine during his im¬ 
prisonment, forms likewise a prominent subject of the letter 


MR. PAINE’s ATTACHMENT TO AMERICA-WASHINGTON. 127 

and but for this circumstance it is probable it would never 
have appeared. Notwithstanding the high opinion which 
Mr. Wash ington professed to entertain of his services in be¬ 
half of American independence, he abandoned him in a few 
years afterward to the mercy of Robespierre, and during his 
imprisonment of eleven months he never made a single effort 
to reclaim him. This was not the treatment which the author 
of ‘ Common Sense ’ deserved at the hands of Mr. Washington, 
either as a private individual, or as president of America 
Exclusive of Mr. Paine’s being a citizen of the United States, 
and of his being consequently entitled to the protection of the 
government, he had rendered America services which none 
but the ungrateful could forget ; he had therefore no reason to 
expect that her chief magistrate would abandon him in the 
hour of difficulty. However deserving of our admiration 
some parts of General Washington’s conduct may be, his 
behavior in this instance certainly reflects no honor upon his 
character. 

From a variety of circumstances it appears that Mr. Paine 
regarded the United States as the land of his home. His 
spirit of universal philanthropy, his republican principles, and 
his resolution in attacking fraud and superstition, whether in 
politics or religion, rendered him in a great measure an in¬ 
habitant of the world, more than of any particular country; 
but notwithstanding these peculiarities of disposition, he had 
domestic feelings and local attachments which neither time 
nor distance could obliterate. During his residence in 
Europe, he always declared his intention of returning to 
America : the following extract from a letter of his to a female 

O 

literary correspondent at New York, will show the affectionate 
regard which he constantly cherished for the safety and free¬ 
dom of the country whose affairs were the means of first 
launching him into public life:— 

‘ You touch me on a very tender point, when you say, that 
my friends on your side of the water cannot he reconciled to 
the idea of my abandoning America even for my native Eng¬ 
land. They are right. I had rather see my horse, Button, 
eating the grass of Bordentown, or Morrissania, than see all 
the pomp and show of Europe. 

A thousand years hence, for 1 must indulge a few thoughts, 
perhaps in less, America may be what England now is. The 
innocence of her character, that won the hearts of all nations 
in her favor, may sound like a romance, and her inimitable 
virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty, 
which thousands bled to obtain, may just furnish materials for 
A village tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility; while 
the fashionable of that day, enveloped in dissipation, shall de¬ 
cide the principle and deny the fact. 

When we contemplate the fall of empires, and the extinction 


128 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


of the nations of the ancient world, we see but little more to 
excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous 
palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls 
and towers of the most costly workmanship : but when the 
empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative 
sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or mar¬ 
ble can inspire. It will not then be said, Here stood a temple 
of vast antiquity, here rose a Babel of invisible height, or there 
a palace of sumptuous extravagance; but here, ah! painful 
thought! the noblest work of human wisdom, the greatest 
scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom, rose and fell! 
Read this, then ask if I forgot America.’ 

The name of the lady to whom the above was addressed, 
was Nicholson. She was afterward married to Colonel Few. 
Whether or not it was owing to Mr. Paine’s opinions on reli¬ 
gion I do not know, but on his return to America he was totally 
forsaken by her and her husband. When, however, Mr. Paine’s 
dissolution was at hand, they sought his company, and Mrs. 
Few expressed a wish to renew their former friendship. But 
Mr. Paine, weak and debilitated as he was, refused to shake 
hands with her, and indignantly observed, 4 You have neglect¬ 
ed me, and I beg you will leave the room.’ 

In 1797, a society was formed of a number of persons in 
Paris, under the title of 4 Theophilanthropists.’ Of this society 
Paine was one of the principal promoters. Their objects 
were the propagation of morality and extinction of religious 
prejudices, and their faith the belief of one God. At one of 
their meetings Mr. Paine delivered a public discourse, in 
which he stated his reasons for rejecting the doctrines of 
atheism, which at that time prevailed in many parts of 
France. 

This year he likewise published a 4 Letter to the People of 
France, on the Events of the eighteenth Fructidor.’ Of the 
merits or demerits of this pamphlet, I am unable to say any¬ 
thing as I have not been able to procure a copy. I believe it 
w^as never reprinted. 

About the middle of the same year he also addressed a let¬ 
ter to Camille Jordan, one of the council of five hundred, re¬ 
specting his report on the priests, public worship, and bells. 
I have only seen a mutilated copy of this production, but as 
far as I can judge from that, it deserves to be classed with the 
best works of the author. 4 It is want of feeling,’ says he, 4 to 
talk of priests and bells, while so many infants are perishing 
in the hospitals, and aged and infirm poor in the streets from 
the want of necessaries. The abundance that France pro¬ 
duces is sufficient for every want, if riohtly applied ; but 
priests and bells, like articles of luxury, ought to be the least 
articles of consideration.’ 

The publication of his deistical opinions certainly lost our 


A MEMBER OF THE THEOPHILANTEOPISTS. 


129 


author a great number of friends, and, it is possible, that this 
might be one of the causes of General Washington’s indiffer¬ 
ence. The clear, open, and undisguised method in which he 
had contested established opinions, called forth the united 
indignation of the whole order of priesthood in England and 
America, and there was scarcely a house of devotion, in the 
old world or the new, which did not resound with their pious 
execrations. They witnessed with amazement and terror the 
immense circulation of the work, and they trembled at the 
possibility that men might assume sufficient courage to think 
for themselves. Thousands of persons who had never seen 
the book, and who knew nothing of its contents, except through 
the perverted medium of their spiritual teachers, rent the air 
with exclamations against the blasphemies of Thomas Paine, 
and to conclude these truly charitable proceedings, the Eng¬ 
lish government called upon the public to condemn the work 
which they had suppressed by a legal prosecution. 

Such are the means adopted by the professors of Christianity 
to suffocate inquiry, and to dispel the doubts of skepticism. 

To the credit of mankind it ought to be observed, that the 
powers of the hierarchy are upon the decline. There was a 
time when Mr. Paine would have been roasted alive for daring to 
dispute the dogmas of the church, but the progress of science, 
and its handmaid, civilization, has softened the ferocity of 
human nature, and a somewhat milder punishment is now re¬ 
served for those who may question the divinity of the Chris¬ 
tian religion. For this, however, we are not indebted either 
to the morality of the religion, or the piety of its professors— 
we owe it to the progress which mankind have made in freeing 
themselves from the profane and barbarous notions which 
such a system of belief is calculated to diffuse wherever it is 
tolerated.” 

Mr. Paine, it appears, lived long enough in France to be¬ 
come unpopular, at least for a time. His opposition to the 
dominant party of Robespiere, and to the death of the king 
of France, were the political offences which rendered him so 
While his “Age of Reason,” written in defence of deism, and 
for the express purpose of arresting the progress of atheism, 
as he himself informs us, still farther contributed to his un¬ 
popularity, for atheism and violence, although not necessarily 
connected, at one time prevailed ; and during the reign of terror, 
and even after the death ot Robespiere, men who were not of 
hisparty, nor intolerant democrats, assumed to be so, to avoid 
suspicion and death by the guillotine: these therefoie dared 
not associate with Mr. Paine, who steadfastly adhered to his 

17 


130 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


republican principles without cringing to an intolerant party. 
When Mr. Paine became unpopular he lived chiefly in retire¬ 
ment ; and, though a member of the national assembly, he did 
not make himself prominent, as he could not sanction their 
proceedings, and opposition was useless, especially, as he did not 
speak the language fluently, and never in public. While Mr 
Paine was unpopular in France, and when he had but few 
friends, he resided chiefly with Mr. Bonneville and family. Mr. 
Bonneville at that time edited a paper, was in good circum 
stances,and when Mr.Paine’s remittances from this country were 
not regular, he cheerfully lent him money. This kindness, on 
the part of Bonneville, shown at a time when Mr. Paine most 
needed it, was not lost on him, for he was as grateful as gen¬ 
erous, moral qualities always in the same ratio ; and Mr. Paine 
had afterward an opportunity of returning this kindness; for, 
on the elevation of Bonaparte to supreme power, the press 
of Mr. Bonneville was stopped, and himself injured in his 
property. At this time Mr. Paine resolved to quit France, 
where liberty appeared hopelessly absorbed by the splendid 
military talents and achievements of Napoleon. Mr. Paine 
then offered an asylum to Mr. Bonneville and family in the 
United States, and this offer Mr. Bonneville accepted, and 
soon after Mr. Paine returned to this country. In 1802 
Mr. Bonneville forwarded his wife and three sons, intending to 
follow them as soon as he could settle his affairs. Accident 
or change of purpose delayed his arrival till after Mr. Paine’s 
death, and hence he became charged with the maintenance of 
Mrs. Bonneville and family (except the elder son, who returned 
to his father) till his death. To this subject we shall again 
refer in the fourth part of this life, especially as it afforded 
Cheetham the subject of a libel, of which he was convicted, 
after the death of Mr. Paine. 

The social and moral character of Mr. Paine while m 
France appears to have been the same as in England, and as in 
this country during the revolution; yet Sherwin, in his life, 
seems to admit that at one period, when unpopular, he became 
intemperate. Joel Barlow, who certainly knew him well, 
partially admits the charge while he vindicates the general 
character of Mr. Paine, in a letter to Cheetham, which we shall 


mr. paine’s habits in France. 


131 


extract. In spite of these admissions, and others, with various 
allusions from persons who knew something' of him, we are 
sceptical of the fact, because we were nearly betrayed into an 
error on this subject, in relation to his course of life after his 
return to this country. The statement that Mr. Paine was 
intemperate was so commonly asserted, that we never con¬ 
templated looking for proof to the contrary, till this fact was 
forced upon us by the uniform testimony of his most intimate 
acquaintances ; but as this subject relates to the fourth part 
of his history, we shall reserve it for its proper place. We 
introduced it merely to justify our scepticism in relation to 
his habits in France, when partially in seclusion. This doubt 
in us does not arise from any desire to screen Mr. Paine from 
any supposed blemish ; for, if this were the fact, we feel more 
disposed to justify than to screen him. We know that he was 
not only temperate in after life, but even abstemious ; and he 
would therefore stand as a monument of reform in old age, 
on a subject where reform is most uncommon at that period. 
Mr. Paine lived in an age when hospitality and excess were 
so identified that the one could not be shown without the 
other. In our boyish days bumpers were drank in good 
society, on public occasions ; the toasts must go round, and the 
glasses drained in honor to the toast, and occasional excess, 
even when no public cause induced it, was only a proof of 
good fellowship. Nor would the host be satisfied that the 
guests had done him honor, if noisy mirth, excited by wine, 
did not finish the repast; while the guest did not scruple, on his 
next-day visit, to complain of present headache, and of double 
sight, and a staggering gait on the previous evening, as proofs 
of his good entertainment, and of the liberality of his friend 
and host. At that time Pitt was a fovr-bottle man, Fox, when 
in exertion, would drink wine from a great bowl, and the heir- 
apparent to the British crown might even go to greater ex¬ 
cesses, surrounded by the brilliants of the nation ; among 
whom Sheridan and Fox were not the least distinguished. 
If Mr. Paine, then, the companion of some of these men, had 
done as they did, he would only have been on a level with 
Tiem, and to the custom of the times must the folly be as¬ 
cribed Since that age the custom has changed, bumpers are 


132 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


not insisted on in good society, except in song. A drained 
glass is not a sine que non. The host indeed spreads the 
table abundantly, but excess is not the fashion j each helps 
himself, and the flow of reason and wit, and innocent games, 
supply the place of boisterous mirth. The change is rational, 
but the present age must not condemn the past, for all follow 
custom. We feel then no disposition to screen Mr. Paine, 
but so many falsehoods have been told on this subject, that 
we honestly doubt various assertions unsupported by facts. 
Mr. Clio Rickman followed Mr. Paine to France, became again 
his companion, and parted with him on the shore when he finally 
left that country for this. We shall give that gentleman’s 
account of Mr. Paine’s habits in France, as far as he knew. 

“Mr. Paine was acknowledged deputy for Calais, the 21st of 
September, 1792. In France, during the early part of the rev¬ 
olution, his time was almost wholly occupied as a deputy of 
the convention and as a member of the committee of consti¬ 
tution. His company was now coveted and sought after uni¬ 
versally among every description of people, and by many who 
for some reasons never chose to avow it. With the Earl of 
Lauderdale, and Dr. Moore, whose company he was fond of, 
he dined every Friday, till Lord Gower’s departure made it 
necessary for them to quit France, which was early in 1793. 

About this period he removed from White’s hotel to one near 
the Rue de Richelieu, where he was so plagued and interrupt¬ 
ed by numerous visiters, and sometimes by adventurers, that 
in order to have some time to himself he appropriated two 
mornings in a week for his levee days.* To this indeed he was, 
extremely averse, from the fuss and formality attending it, but 
he was nevertheless obliged to adopt it. 

Annoyed and disconcerted with a life so contrary to his wishes 
and habits, and so inimical to his views, he retired to the Faux- 
bourg St. Dennis, where he occupied part of the hotel that 
Madame de Pompadour once resided in. 

* Among these adventurers was a person calling himself Major Lisle : Mr. Paine 
was at breakfast when he was announced ; he stated himself to be lately arrived 
from Ireland ; he was dressed in the Irish uniform, and wore a green cockade ; he 
appeared to be a well-informed man, and was gentlemanly in his manners, but ex¬ 
tremely voluble. He ran over the number of sieges and battles he had been at, 
and ended with professing a zealous desire to serve the republic, wishing Mr. 
Paine to give him a letter of recommendation to the minister at war. Mr.Faine 
was extremely observing, shrewd, and cautious; he treated him with hospitality 
and politeness, and inquired after some of the leading characters in Ireland, with 
whom he found the major not at all acquainted ; he then recommended him to 
take the credentials of his services to the military committee, but declined every 
importunity to interfere himself. The adventurer turned out afterward to be the 
notorious Major Semcle. 


mr. paine’s habits in France. 


133 


Here was a good garden well laid out, and here too our mu 
tual friend Mr. Choppin occupied apartments ; at this residence, 
which for a town one was very quiet, he lived a life of retire¬ 
ment and philosophical ease, while it was believed he was gone 
into the country for his health, which by this time indeed was 
much impaired by intense application to business, and by the 
anxious solicitude he felt for the welfare of public affairs. 

Here with a chosen few he unbent himself; among whom 
were Brissot, the Marquis de Chatelet le Roi of the gallerie de 
honore, and an old friend of Dr. Franklin, Banqal, and some¬ 
times General Miranda. His English associates were Christie 
and family, Mary Wolstonecraft, Mr. and Mrs. Stone, &c. 
Among his American friends were Capt. Imlay, Joel Barlow, 
&c., &c. To these parties the French inmates were generally 
invited. 

It was about this time a gentleman at Paris thus writes of 
him to his friend : ‘An English lady of our acquaintance, not 
less remarkable for her talents than for her elegance of man¬ 
ners, entreated me to contrive that she might have an interview 
with Mr. Paine. In consequence of this I invited him to din¬ 
ner on a day when we were to be favored with her company. 
For above four hours he kept every one in astonishment and 
admiration of his memory, his keen observation of men and 
manners, his numberless anecdotes of the American Indians, 
of the American war, of Franklin, Washington, and even of 
his majesty, of whom he told several curious facts of humor 
and benevolence. His remarks on genius and taste can never 
be forgotten by those present.’ ” 

The above extract is a part of Mr. Yorke’s letter, published 
we believe in this country, but as that letter contains some 
falsehoods we have no confidence in it ; for Mr. Yorke says 
Paine could repeat by heart anything he had written : and Sher- 
win repeats the statement. This is a mistake, as we are in¬ 
formed by Mr. John Fellows and others, hi^ intimates. Mr. 
Paine would necessarily express himself nearly in the same 
style, on the same subject, because it was the most clear, the 
fewest words, and combined the greatest strength. Men who 
say the best thing first, can but repeat them on a future occa¬ 
sion. Mr. Clio Rickman goes on to remark:— 

“ He usually rose about seven, breakfasted with his friend 
Choppin, Johnson, and two or three other Englishmen, and a 
Monsieur La Borde, who had been an officer in the ci-devant 
garde du corps, an intolerable aristocrat, but whose skill in 
mechanics and geometry brought on a friendship between him 
and Paine ; for the undaunted and distinguished ability and 


134 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 


firmness with which he ever defended his own opinions whec 
controverted, do not reflect higher honor upon him than that 
unbounded liberality toward the opinions of others which con¬ 
stituted such a prominent feature in his character, and which 
never suffered mere difference of sentiment, whether political 
or religious, to interrupt the harmonious intercourse of 
friendship, or impede the interchanges of knowledge and 
information. 

After breakfast he usually strayed an hour or two in the 
garden, where he one morning pointed out the kind of spider 
whose web furnished him with the first idea of constructing 
his iron bridge ; a fine model of which, in mahogany, is pre 
served at Paris. 

The little happy circle who lived with him here will ever 
remember these days with delight: with these select friends 
he would talk of his boyish days, play at chess, whist, piquet, 
or cribbage, and enliven the moments by many interesting 
anecdotes: with these he would sport on the broad and fine 
gravel walk at the upper end of the garden, and then retire to 
his boudoir, where he was up to his knees in letters and papers 
of various descriptions. Here he remained till dinner-time ; 
and unless he visited Brissot’s family, or some particular friend 
in the evening, which was his frequent custom, he joined 
again the society of his favorites and fellow-boarders, with 
whom his conversation was often witty and cheerful, always 
acute and improving, but never frivolous. 

Incorrupt, straightforward, and sincere, he pursued his politi¬ 
cal course in France, as everywhere else, let the government or 
clamor or faction of the day be what it might, with firmness, 
with clearness, and without a ‘ shadow of turning.’ 

In all Mr. Paine’s inquiries and conversations he evinced 
the strongest attachment to the investigation of truth, and was 
always for going to the fountain-head for information. He 
often lamented we had no good history of America, and that 
the letters written by Columbus, the early navigators, and 
others, to the Spanish court, were inaccessible, and that many 
valuable documents, collected by Philip II, and deposited with 
the national archives at Simania, had not yet been promulga¬ 
ted. He used to speak highly of the sentimental parts of Ray- 
nal’s History.” 

As farther illustration of the character of Mr. Paine while 
in France we shall now introduce the letter of Joel Barlow 
to Cheetham, when Cheetham was getting up the life of 
Paine, just after the death of the latter. He wrote for in 
information to various persons, suggesting what answers they 
should give by leading questions. These answers, if they 
suited his purpose, he published, if not, he suppressed them. 


135 


JOEL BARLOW’S LETTER TO CHEETHAM. 

or he took the liberty of publishing detached parts of what he 
had been told, or related direct falsehoods, as in the case ot 
Mr. Jarvis, who has explicitly denied to us the words which 
Cheetham puts into his mouth in relation to Mr. Paine. 
Cheetham, among others, wrote to Mr. Barlow, and to him 
put such sort of questions as we have noticed. Mr. Barlow, 
in reply, states as follows:— 


TO JAMES CHEETHAM. 

“ Sir : I have received your letter calling for information re¬ 
lative to the life of Thomas Paine. It appears to me that this 
is not the moment to publish the life of that man in this 
country. His own writings are his best life, and these are 
not read at present. 

The greatest part of the readers in the United States wil. 
not be persuaded as long as their present feelings last, to con¬ 
sider him in any other light than as a drunkard and a deist 
The writer of his life who should dwell on these topics, to the 
exclusion of the great and estimable traits of his real char¬ 
acter, might, indeed, please the rabble of the age who do not 
know him ; the book might sell; but it would only tend to 
render the truth more obscure, for the future biographer than 
it was before. 

But if the present writer should give us Thomas Paine 
complete in all his character as one of the most benevolent and 
disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clearest percep¬ 
tion, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest 
breadth of thought; if this piece of biography should analyze 
his literary labors, and rank him as he ought to be ranked 
among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries of the 
age in which he has lived—yet with a mind assailable by flat¬ 
tery, and receiving through that weak side a tincture of vanity 
which he was too proud to conceal; with a mind, though 
strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic under the 
heaviest load of oppression, yet unable to endure the contempt 
of his former friends and fellow-laborers, the rulers of the 
country that had received his first and greatest services— 
a mind incapable of looking down with serene compassion, as 
it ought, on the rude scoffs of their imitators, a new genera¬ 
tion that knows him not; a mind that shrinks from their 
society, and unhappily seeks refuge in low company, or looks 
for consolation in the sordid, solitary bottle, till it sinks at last 
so far below its native elevation as to lose all respect for itself, 
and to forfeit that of his best friends, disposing these friends 
almost to join with his enen ies, and wish, though from dif¬ 
ferent motives, that he would haste to hide himself in the 


13G 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


grave—if you are disposed and prepared to write his life, thus 
entire , to fill up the picture to which these hasty strokes of 
outline give but a rude sketch with great vacuities, your book 
may be a useful one for another age, but it will not be relished, 
nor scarcely tolerated in this. 

The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his mathe¬ 
matical acquirements, and his mechanical genius. His inven¬ 
tion of the iron bridge, which led him to Europe in the year 
1787, has procured him a great reputation in that branch of 
science, in France and England, in both which countries his 
bridge has been adopted in many instances, and is now much in 
use. 

You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France. 
Doubtless, the qualification to be a member of the convention 
required an oath of fidelity to that country, but involved in it 
no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a French 
citizen by the same decree with Washington, Hamilton, Priest- 
iey, and Sir James Mackintosh. 

What Mr. M-has told you relative to the circum¬ 

stances of his arrestation by order of Robespierre, is erro¬ 
neous, at least in one point. Paine did not lodge at the house 
where he was arrested, but had been dining there with some 

Americans, of whom Mr. M-may have been one. I 

never heard before, that Paine was intoxicated that night. In¬ 
deed the officers brought him directly to my house, which was 
two miles from his lodgings, and about as much from the 
place where he had been dining. He was not intoxicated 
when they came to me. Their object was to get me to go 
and assist them to examine Paine’s papers. It employed us 
the rest of that night, and the whole of the next day at Paine’s 
lodgings ; and he was not committed to prison till the next 
evening. 

You ask what company he kept—he always frequented the 
best, both in England and France, till he became the object 
of calumny in certain American papers (echoes of the English 
court papers), for his adherence to what he thought the cause 
of liberty in France, till he conceived himself neglected and 
despised by his former friends in the United States. From 
that moment he gave himself very much to drink, and, conse¬ 
quently, to companions less worthy of his better days.* 

It is said he was always a peevish inmate—this is possible. 
So was Lawrence Sterne, so was Torquato Tasso, so was J. J. 
Rousseau ; but Thomas Paine, as a visiting acquaintance and 
as a literary friend, the only points of view in which I knew 
him, was one of the most instructive men I ever have known. 
He had a surprising memory and brilliant fancy ; his mind was 
a storehouse of facts and useful observations ; he was full of 
lively anecdote, and ingenious original, pertinent remark upon 
almost every subject 




MR. PAINE’s NAME SUPPRESSED BY HISTORIANS. 


137 


He was,always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a 
6ure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that 
he found in foreign countries. And he had frequent occasions 
to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolu¬ 
tion in France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, 
and his entire devotion to what he conceived to be the best 
interest and happiness of mankind.* 

This, sir, is all I have to remark on the subject you mention. 
Now I have only one request to make, and that would doubt¬ 
less seem impertinent, were you not the editor of a news¬ 
paper ; it is, that you will not publish my letter, nor permit a 
copy of it to be taken. 

I am, sir, &c., 

Joel Barlow. 

KaloramA; August 11, 1809.” 

Mr. Barlow was not always so candid. He has published a 
poem on the revolution, in which he does not mention Mr. 
Paine, whose “ Common Sense ” produced the declaration of 
independence, and who, throughout the contest, did more 
toward producing unanimity and funds (the two essentials in 
war) than any other man. We have now in our house a 
compact history of the revolution, by S. F. Wilson, published 
in Baltimore, in which the same injustice is done to Mr. Paine, 
for he scarcely occupies one line in the history, although 
“ political writings ,” without giving a name, are referred to, as 
being very efficacious. Paul Allen in a larger work does him 
the same injustice. In a biography of distinguished American 
characters, by Colonel Knapp, published by Conner, a short 
notice was inserted of Mr. Paine, being a republication of an 
English biography. This Mr. Conner was obliged to alter, 
after stereotyping, at the instigation of Collins and Hanna, 
and other booksellers, not because the facts and sentiments 
were incorrect, but because the praise of Mr. Paine would 
spoil the sale of the book. These facts we learn from Mr. 
John Fellows and Mr. Conner. In the case of Joel Barlow, 
there was no personal objection, hut he knew that prejudices 
existed against Mr. Paine, and he succumbed to public feeling; 
and such we believe the case with other writers. 

\ . 

* Mr. Barlow might have added, in regard to Mr. Paine’s religion, that as it 
was the religion of most of the men of science of the present age. and probably 
of three fourths of those of the last, there could be no just reason for making it 
an exception in his character. 

1* 


138 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


While Mr. Paine was in France, and partly detached from 
politics, in consequence of imprisonment and the violence of 
party, he was not idle. Mr. Yorke remarks, in his letter pub¬ 
lished in Sherwin’s Life :— 

“ In showing me one day the beautiful models of two bridges 
be had devised, he observed that Dr. Franklin once told him, 
that ‘ books are written to please, houses built for great men, 
churches for priests, but no bridge for the people.’ 

These models exhibit an extraordinary degree, not only ot 
skill, but of taste, in mechanics ; and are wrought with extreme 
delicacy, entirely by his own hands. The largest is nearly four 
feet in length ; the iron works, the chains, and every other 
article belonging to it, were forged and manufactured by him¬ 
self. It is intended as the model of a bridge, which is to be 
constructed across the Delaware, extending 480 feet with only 
one arch. The other is to be erected over a lesser river, 
whose name I forget, and is likewise a single arch, and of his 
own workmanship, excepting the chains, which instead of iron, 
are cut out of pasteboard, by the fair hand of his correspond¬ 
ent, the ‘Little Corner of the World,’ whose indefatigable per¬ 
severance is extraordinary. He was offered three thousand 
pounds for these models, and refused it. The iron bars, which 
I before mentioned that I noticed in a corner of his room, were 
also forged by himself, as the model of a crane, of a new de¬ 
scription. He put them together, and exhibited the power of 
the lever, to a most surprising degree.” 

“ Mr. Yorke in the above extract states the correspondence 
between Lady Smith and Mr. Paine to have been extremely 
beautiful and interesting; as a proof of this, the following 
specimen is subjoined :— 

* FROM “ THE CASTLE IN AIR,” TO THE * LITTLE CORNER OF THE 

WORLD.” 

In the region of clouds where the whirlwinds arise, 

My castle of fancy was built; 

The turrets reflected the blue of the skies, 

And the windows with sun-beams were gilt. 

The rainbow sometimes, in its beautiful state, 

Enamelled the mansion around, 

And the figures that fancy in clouds can create, 

Supplied me with gardens and ground. 

I had grottoes and fountains andoranse tree groves, 

I had all that enchantment has told ; 

I had sweet shady walks for the gods and their loves, 

I had mountains of coral and gold. 

But a storm that I felt not, had risen and rolled 
While wrapt in a slumber I lay: 

And when I looked out in the morning, behold! 

My castle was carried away. 


\ 


MR. PAINE’s POETRY-SOCIALITY. 


139 


It passed over rivers, and valleys, and groves— 

The world, it was all in my view— 

I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves, 

And often, full often, of you. 

At length it came over a beautiful scene, 

That nature in silence had made : 

The place was but small—but’t was sweetly serene, 

And chequered with sunshine arid shade. 

I gaz^d and I envied with painful good will, 

And grew tired of my seat in the air : 

When all of a sudden my castle stood still. 

As if some attraction was there. 

Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down, 

And placed me exactly in view— 

When who should I meet, in this charming retreat, 

This corner of calmness—but you. 

Delighted to find you in honor and ease, 

I felt no more sorrow nor pain ; 

And the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze, 

And went back with my castle again.’ 

The above was written during 1 his residence in Paris. Mr. 
Paine had very early in life corresponded with the lady to 
whom it was addressed, his letters, like the foregoing, being 
dated from the ‘ Castle in the Air,’ and hers from the ‘ Little 
Corner of the World.’ For reasons which he knew not, their 
intercourse was suddenly suspended, and for some time he 
believed his friend in obscurity and distress. Many years 
afterward, he met her unexpectedly at Paris, in the most afflu¬ 
ent circumstances, and married to Sir Robert Smith. 

In Mr. Yorke’s Letters there is another piece, on forgetful¬ 
ness. This is replete with the most beautiful imagery, but Mr. 
Yorke, from some motive which I cannot discover, has can¬ 
celled so great a part of it, that much of the interest is lost 
which it would otherwise possess. 

As the letter of Mr. Jefferson which Mr. Yorke alludes to, 
shows the high opinion which that gentleman entertained of 
our author’s services, and his wish to accommodate him by 
every possible kindness, I here subjoin a copy of it:— 

‘You express a wish in your letter to return to America by 
a national ship; Mr. Dawson, who brings over the treaty, and 
who will present you with this letter, is charged with orders 
to the captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you 
back, if you can be ready to depart at such a short warning. 
You will in general find us returned to sentiments worthy of 
former times ; in these it will be your glory to have steadily 
labored, and with as much effect as any man living. That you 
may live long to continue your useful labors, and reap the re¬ 
ward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere prayer. 
Accept the assurances of my high esteem, and affectionate at¬ 
tachment. 


Thomas Jefferson ’ 


140 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


Soon after Mr. Paine’s release from the Luxembourg 1 , it ap¬ 
pears he made an effort to return to America, but he found 
the obstacles more numerous than he expected. The miscon¬ 
duct of Mr. Monroe’s predecessor had rendered his reception 
in France a very unpleasant one, and as soon as he had effect 
ed a good understanding with the government of that country, 
he wished to transmit some despatches to America, by a per¬ 
son with whom he could likewise confide a verbal communica¬ 
tion, and he fixed upon Mr. Paine. For this purpose he ap¬ 
plied to the committee of public safety for a passport, but as 
Mr. Paine had been voted again into the convention, it was 
only the convention who could grant the passport, and as an 
application to them would have made his departure publicly 
known, he was obliged to sustain the disappointment, and Mr. 
Monroe to lose the opportunity. 

When Mr. Monroe left France, our author was to have accom¬ 
panied him, but owing to some unforeseen circumstances he 
was unable to complete his arrangements for that purpose. It 
was fortunate he could not, for the vessel in which the minister 
returned was boarded by a British frigate in her passage, and 
every part of her searched, down even to the hold, for Thomas 
Paine. He then went to Havre, thinking that he should be able 
to embark there without its being known, but he found that 
several British frigates were cruising in sight of the port, and 
he thereupon returned to Paris. Seeing himself cut off from 
every opportunity that was within his power to command, he 
wrote to Mr. Jefferson requesting that if the fate of the election 
should put him in the chair of the presidency, and he should 
have occasion to send a frigate to France, he would give him 
the opportunity of returning by it. This application produced 
an answer from Mr. Jefferson of which the letter before cited 
is a copy. He did not, however, go by this vessel, the notice 
being too short. He next agreed to embark with Commodore 
Barney, in a vessel he had engaged, but in this, as in some of 
the former cases^ the protecting hand of Providence was very 
visible, he was accidently detained beyond the time, and the 
vessel sunk at sea. Such a multitude of difficulties and nar¬ 
row escapes were perhaps never concentrated together in the 
execution of so simple a project. He finally embarked from 
Havre on the 1st of September, and arrived at Baltimore on 
the 30th of October, 1802.” 


14 ! 


PART IV. 

FROM THE ARRIVAL OF MR. PAINE IN BALTIMORE, OCTOBER 30, 1802. 

TO HIS DEATH IN 1809* 

The most interesting period of Mr. Paine’s life has neces¬ 
sarily already been given. He was now an old man, between 
sixty and seventy, yet vigorous, with his mental faculties unim¬ 
paired. His strong desire to end his days in the United States 
was beautifully and pathetically expressed to a lady, in a 
letter from France, a few days before his arrival. This we 
have already given, page 127. The reception of Mr. Paine 
in the United States was such as might have been expected 
from his fame and independent course. In a letter to his 
friend Clio Rickman he thus expresses himself:— 

“My dear friend : Mr. Monroe, who is appointed minister 
extraordinary to France, takes charge of this, to be delivered 
to Mr. Este, banker in Paris, to be forwarded to you. 

I arrived at Baltimore 30th October, and you can have no 
idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned. From 
New Hampshire to Georgia (an extent of 1500 miles), every 
newspaper was filled with applause or abuse. 

My property in this country has been taken care of by my 
friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling ; which 
put in the funds will bring me <£400 sterling a year. 

Remember me in friendship and affection to your wife and 
family, and in the circle of our friends. 

Yours in friendship, 

Thomas Paine.” 

What course he meant to pursue in America his own words 
will best tell, and best characterize his sentiments and prin¬ 
ciples ; they arc these:— 

“As this letter is intended to announce my arrival to my 
friends, and rry enemies if I have any, for I ought to have 
none in America, and as introductory to others that will occa- 


142 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


sionally follow, I shall close it by detailing the line of conduct 
I shall pursue. 

I have no occasion to ask, nor do I intend to accept, any 
place or office in the government. 

There is none it could give me that would in any way be 
equal to the profits I could make as an author (for I have an 
established fame in the literary world) could I reconcile it to 
my principles to make money by my politics or religion ; 1 
must be in everything as I have ever been, a disinterested 
volunteer : my proper sphere of action is on the common floor 
of citizenship, and to honest men I give my hand and my heart 
freely. 

I have some manuscript works to publish, of which I shall 
give proper notice, and some mechanical affairs to bring for¬ 
ward, that will employ all my leisure time. 

I shall continue these letters as I see occasion, and as to the 
low party prints that choose to abuse me, they are welcome; 
I shall not descend to answer them. I have been too much 
used to such common stuff to take any notice of it. 

Thomas Paine. 

City of Washington.” 

Mr. Paine did not remain long at Baltimore, but while there 
the following characteristic circumstance occurred :— 

“Passing through Baltimore, he was accosted by the Rev. 
Mr. Hargrove, minister of a new sect, called the New Jeru 
salemites. ‘ You are Mr. Paine,’said Mr. Hargrove. ‘Yes.’ 
‘My name is Hargrove, sir; I am minister of the New Jeru 
salem church here. We, sir, explain the Scripture in its true 
meaning. The key has been lost above four thousand years, 
and we have found it.’ ‘ Then,’ said Paine, drily, ‘ it must 
have been very rusty.’ 

Mr. Paine visited Washington, and was kindly received by 
Jefferson, then president; indeed this gentleman kept up 
a constant correspondence with him to the day of his death. 
He had invited him to return to the United States, had sent 
out a ship for him, and on being asked if he had done so, he 
replied, “ I have, and when he. arrives, if there be an office in 
my gift, suitable for him to fill, I will give it to him ; I will 
never abandon old friends to make room for new ones.” Mr. 
Paine, it appears, had resolved not to take office, his wants 
were moderate and his means sufficient. Mr. Paine visited 
the heads of the departments, and the various leading political 
sharacters, by whom he was received with pleasure, and re 


MR. PAINE IN NEW YORK. 


1*3 

membered with gratitude, not, however, to be depended on 
when such remembrances came in contact with their 
popularity. 

Soon after Mr. Paine came to New York, and put up at the 
City hotel, then Lovett’s hotel, where Grant Thorburn, weL 
known in New York, says, in a pamphlet before noticed, that 
he visited him, introduced himself, shook hands with him, de¬ 
clared that his only object in thus visiting Mr. Paine was to see 
the man who had written “ Common Sense,” and was so much 
talked about; and having gratified his curiosity, as he says, 
he abruptly retired, to the no small amusement of the party 
Thorburn had formerly adopted Mr. Paine’s principles, but at 
this time he was a professor of religion, and held some office 
in a baptist church, the members of which, hearing that Mr 
Grant Thorburn had shaken hands with Thomas Paine, thought 
proper to suspend him from the church on that account; for 
this reason we have introduced the anecdote, as it explains 
the situation of all the friends of Mr. Paine, who were con¬ 
nected with churches, either from principle or policy 

While Mr. Paine was at Lovett’s hotel, in spite of the in 
fiucnce of the church, he was honored with a public dinner by 
a respectable and numerous party, and his after-enemy, 
Cheetham, then editor of a daily paper, the organ of the demo 
cratic party, was particularly active in making the arrange¬ 
ments. Notwithstanding this public declaration in favor of 
Mr. Paine, he was not popular; the church feared him and 
had'set their curse upon him; children had been taught to 
lisp his name in connexion with blasphemy; and those polit¬ 
ical leaders who sought after place, without regarding the 
means to be employed, and who needed the suffrages of the 
pious, and above all feared their united opposition, shunned 
the company of Mr. Paine as something contaminating. The 
people were deceived by the church, and those who knew 
better wanted the honesty to stem the torrent Jefferson, 
Clinton, the mayor of New York, and a number of others, 
high in politics, literature, and situation in life, were honorable 
exceptions; while the independence of Mr. Paine would not 
allow him to conceal his principles or conform in practices 
which involved even a portion of hypocrisy. On a morning 


144 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


visit to Dr. Mitchill, in company with Mr. John Fellows, the 
latter reminded Mr. Paine, while in a gig, before they reached 
the doctor, that Mr. Paine had a morning gown on ; Mr. Paine 
replied, “ Let those dress who need it.” Cheetham has said 
much about the slovenly habits and appearance of Mr. Paine. 
Mr. Fellows, who knew him well from his first return to this 
country till his death, denies the whole of it. He remarks 
that he was careless of his appearance (as the above little 
anecdote shows), but always cleanly and decent; and, as we 
before remarked, that he never saw him disguised in liquor 
but once, when he had been to a dinner party, and that he 
was then only excited. This opinion we find uniformly sup¬ 
ported by every credible person who knew him. 

The partial desertion of Mr. Paine, as a matter of policy, by 
many of the prominent leading political characters, opened a 
way to others of less influence in society, but more fearless 
of public opinion ; and some of these, with an indiscreet zeal, 
thrust themselves upon Mr. Paine, and claimed a sort of 
championship in his support. At this time Mr. Carver intro¬ 
duced himself to Mr. Paine, as a fellow-townsman, who, when 
a boy, remembered the fame of the latter, at Lewes, in Sussex. 
Mr. Paine, too, probably, remembered him, for Carver had 
sometimes saddled his horse, and could remind him of these 
services and former times. Mr. Carver was at this period a 
respectable tradesman, a blacksmith and veterinary surgeon. 
He had a comfortable home, was liberal, and kept a horse and 
chaise ; but, above all, he was honest, independent, and openly 
avowed the opinions, political and theological, of Mr. Paine. 
With him Mr. Paine consented to live till he went to his farm 
at New Rochelle ; and thus he became a guest, and afterward a 
boarder and lodger of a man who, 'without meaning it, did his 
memory a great injustice, by becoming the tool of Cheetham 
in a fit of anger. 

Mrs. Bonneville and her three «ons soon after arrived from 
France, on invitation from Mr. Pa Vie to Mr. Bonneville and 
the whole family, as mentioned in the introduction to this life. 
Mr. Paine, who was simple in his habits, indeed economical, 
offered Mrs. Bonneville his small farm at Bordentown, where 
he wished to establish her in a school ; but this employment 


CHEETIIAm’s FALSEHOODS-PAINE IN RETIREMENT. 145 

did not suit the habits or taste of this lady, and thus the ex¬ 
pense of herself and family fell entirely on Mr. Paine. He 
retired to New Rochelle, and boarded with Purdy, who lived 
on Paine’s farm. Madam Bonneville, however, preferred New 
York, where she occasionally taught French, while the two 
boys were sent to school at New Rochelle by Mr. Paine ; the 
eldest, a youth of fourteen, returned to France. Mr. Paine 
was godfather to one of the others, who had been named after 
him. He now divided his time between New York and New Ro¬ 
chelle, boarding in various places, and sometimes living on his 
farm. 

Cheetham has represented Mr. Paine at this period, as dis¬ 
gustingly dirty, drunken, ill-tempered, and quarrelsome, and 
with much impudence he has referred to living characters as 
proofs, and thus he gives to his falsehoods the appearance of 
truth ; while a portion of the clergy, eager to believe what 
they wished to be true, have propagated these falsehoods with 
the utmost zeal. We are, however, fortunate in being ac¬ 
quainted with those who were about him at this time, and 
with some of those to whom Cheetham refers; and these 
latter do not hesitate to blast the memory of this writer of 
Paine’s life as a deliberate falsifier, and as an unprincipled 
man. Both Carver and Mr. Jarvis, the celebrated painter, thus 
speak of Cheetham, and yet he has had the impudence to re¬ 
fer to them for events as facts which he knew to be fabricated. 
At this time, 1803 and 1804, when Mr. Paine was backward 
and forward, from New York to New Rochelle, he resided 
for several weeks at the private house of Captain Pelton, who 
also kept the store at New Rochelle. He resided also for two 
months in the winter with Mr. Staple, at New Rochelle. Mr. 
D. Burger, the brother-in-law of Mr. Staple, was the clerk to 
Captain Pelton, and when Mr. Paine was rather poorly, he 
drove him in a gig daily about the neighborhood. He, too, 
supplied Mr. Paine with all the liquor he took, which was one 
quart of rum in a week, to serve himself and visiters. Mr 
Burger* is well known to us, he has since lived for many* 
years in New York, as a watch and clock-maker, and for 

* This gentleman is since dead, but his eldest son lives and remembers tho 
statement of his father. 


19 


:46 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


some time he had the care of the public clocks ; his veracity 
is not disputed. He describes Mr. Paine as really abstemi 
ous, and when pressed to drink by those on whom he called 
during his rides, he usually refused with great firmness, but 
politely. In one of these rides he was met by De Witt Clinton, 
and their mutual greetings were extremely hearty. Mr. Paine 
at this time was the reverse of morose, and though careless 
in his dress and prodigal of his snuff, he was always clean and 
well clothed. Mr. Burger describes him as familiar even 
with children, and humane to animals, occasionally sitting 
by the store, playing with the neighboring children, and 
communicating a friendly pat, even to a passing dog, assuring 
him he would not see him hurt. Such were the simple habiU 
of the man, described to be wallowing in filth, drunkenness, 
and brutality. At the time of Mr. Paine’s residence at his» 
farm, Mr. Ward, now a coffee-roaster in Gold street, New 
York, and an assistant alderman, was then a little boy and 
residing about Rochelle. He remembers the impressions 
his mother and some religious people made on him by 
speaking of Tom Paine, so that he concluded Tom Paine 
must be a very bad and brutal man. Some of his elder 
companions proposed going into Mr. Paine’s orchard to obtain 
some fruit, and he, out of fear, kept at a distance behind, 
till he beheld, to his surprise, Mr. Paine come out and 
assist the boys in getting apples, patting one on the head 
and caressing another, and directing them where to get the 
best. He then advanced and received his share of encour¬ 
agement, and the impression this kindness made on him 
determined him at a very early period to examine his 
writings. His mother at first took the books from him, but 
at a later period restored them to him, observing that he was 
then of an age to judge for himself; perhaps she had herself 
been gradually undeceived, both as to his character and 
writings. 

In 1804, Mr. Purdy having left his farm, Mr. Paine hired 
one Derick to cultivate it, when he and the family of the 
Bonnevilles boarded for some time at Mr. James Wilburn’s, in 
Gold street. At this period Mr. John Fellows, still living in 
New York, and respected as a good citizen, boarded at the 


PAINE AND MADAME BONNEVILLE. 


147 


same house, and testifies to the propriety both of Mr. Paine's 
and Madame Bonneville’s conduct. Mr. Paine’s notions of 
economy did not however accord with those of Madame Bon¬ 
neville. She was constantly incurring expenses which he 
deemed unnecessary, while she, relying upon the protection 
which he had promised both her and her husband, did not 
scruple to send bills in to him which he had not sanctioned. 
One of these was presented by Mr. Wilburn, for board to the 
amount of thirty-five dollars, which she had incurred beyond 
what he had sanctioned. This demand Mr. Paine resisted, 
perhaps to check Mrs. Bonneville, and make her either con¬ 
tent with a simple competence at his farm in Bordentown, or 
with him at Rochelle, or that she should by industry acquire 
the means of a more ample expenditure. The action was 
brought, and Mr. Fellows was a witness ; but the plaintiff was 
nonsuited, for the debt had been incurred without Mr. Paine’s 
consent. No sooner, however, was the trial ended in the favor 
of Mr. Paine than he paid Mr. Wilburn the money ; thus 
justifying the view we have taken of this subject. Honorable 
and liberal as this transaction is to Mr. Paine, Cheetham, and 
after him Mr. Paine’s enemies, have retailed this story as if 
it were to his discredit. There is no reconciling tastes or 
standards of expenditure. Madame Bonneville’s was probably 
too high to be prudent. Taste is a gift of nature, but partly 
depending on education. A difference of tastes, wh.ere two 
persons are interested, will always lead to divisions, and 
Madame Bonneville does not seem to have readily yielded, or 
to have been very scrupulous as to the means she employed. 
On one occasion, as we learn from Air. Carver, and as Cheet¬ 
ham has expressed in a note (if such authority can be relied on), 

“ Before his return to the city, Madame Bonneville paid him 
a visit, and arrived just at candle-light. She told him she had 
an order which she wished him to sign, for clothing for herself 
and the children, who were all in fact nearly naked. She pre¬ 
sented the order. Paine said, ‘ I’ll put it in my pocket and read 
it in the morning.’—‘ No,’ said she, 1 you must sign it to-night: 
[ want to return and get the things to-morrow.’—‘ I cannot 
read in the night, Pll keep it till morning.’—‘ Then,’ said Alad- 
ame Bonneville, with some temper,‘if you won’t read it to-night, 
give it me back.’ Paine resisted all her importunities : he kept 


148 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 


the paper until the morning', when he found, that instead of an 
order for clothing 1 , it was a bond, duly drawn, for seven hundred 
pounds. Quite enraged, he went to Mrs. Dean’s and told her 
the story, by whom, and by Mr. Carver, it is mentioned to me.” 

In these circumstances Madame Bonneville was some¬ 
times left to want what she thought comforts, yet it does not 
appear that they had any serious quarrels, although these 
differences interrupted that cordial intimacy which both per¬ 
haps expected. Yet, at his death, we shall find he left her, her 
husband, and family, the bulk of his property, which was 
then very considerable. 

During this time Mr. Paine was not idle, he had generally 
some work on politics, science, or literature, on hand. He 
mixed a little too with party politics, communicated with some 
papers and periodicals, and, when Cheetham deserted the demo¬ 
cratic cause, he lashed him with the severity of party spirit, 
but not unjustly ; and hence the revenge which Cheetham 
afterward took. Mr. Paine now, too, published many little 
things which had been written long before for amusement 
when in France or in England. One of these was a piece of 
poetry in the style of “ Chevy Chase,” entitled, “ The Strange 
Story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,” perhaps the severest 
thinsr ever written upon tythes. In 1804 he published an essay 
on the invasion of England, and a treatise on gun-boats, full of 
valuable maritime information ; and, in 1805, a treatise on the 
yellow fever, and suggests modes of preventi-on, especially in 
the improvement of the docks, so as to favor cleanliness. He 
had now been residing for some time at New Bochelle, when 
Mr. Carver rode out to see him, and in his zeal urged him to 
come into the city to oblige his friends, and offered him a 
room in his house. Mr. Paine consented, and thus again 
became an inmate with Mr. Carver, without any engagement 
as to terms, an error extremely injurious in its conse 
quence. Mr. Paine lived with the family, and occasionally 
made purchases for them, thus complicating the accounts* 
While he thus resided in Cedar street, with Mr. Carver, his 
friend, Elihu Palmer, with his wife, boarded in the same street, 
and within sight of Mrs. Burtsell’s ; him Mr. Paine visited 
daily, and when Mr. Paine was seized with an epileptic fit, and 


PAINE AND JARVIS. 


I4f> 

fell down stairs, Mrs. Palmer attended on him. The attend 
ance which he thus required, when ill, still farther served to 
complicate the accounts between him and Mr. Carver. Mrs 
Burtsell, still living in Cedar street, speaks with enthusiasm of 
the agreeable manners of Mr. Paine. She declares she never 
saw him intoxicated, though he was daily in her house. By 
the advice of a medical man Mr. Paine now left Mr Carver’s, 
and lived in Church street with Mr. Jarvis, the celebrated 
painter, still living.* Here he soon recovered, and he and 
Mr. Jarvis became good companions j the one the greatest wit 
of the age, and the other, though now an old man, not 
deficient in sprightly thoughts or conversation, and abounding 
in information. Mr. Jarvis still speaks of their agreeable com¬ 
panionship with much gust, and relates a number of anecdotes 
highly characteristic; and he positively denies to us the 
language ascribed to him by Cheetham. As Mr. Jarvis was 
at this time in good circumstances, and received Mr. Paine as 
a companion, the Cheetham stories of Mr. Paine’s dirtiness 
kill themselves, for it is absurd to suppose Mr. Jarvis would 
have had such a companion. The following are among the 
anecdotes related by Mr. Jarvis in relation to Mr. Paine :— 


“ He usually took a nap after dinner, and would not be dis¬ 
turbed let who would call to see him. One afternoon, a verj 
old lady, dressed in a large scarlet cloak, knocked at the door, 
and inquired for Thomas Paine. Mr. Jarvis told her he was 
asleep. 4 1 am very sorry,’ she said, 4 for that, for I want to see 
him very particularly.’ Thinking it a pity to make an old 
woman call twice, Mr. Jarvis took her into Paine’s bed-room 
and waked him. He rose upon one elbow, and then, with an 
expression of eye that staggered the old woman back a step 
or two, he asked— 4 What do you want V —‘Is your name 
Paine P—‘Yes,’ Well then, I come from Almighty God, to tell 
you, that if you do not repent of your sins and believe in our 

blessed Savior Jesus Christ, you will be damned, and’- 

‘ Poh, poh, it is not true. You were not sent with such an 
impertinent message. Jarvis, make her go away. Pshaw, he 
would not send such a foolish ugly old woman, as you about 
with his messages. Go away. Go back. Shut the door. 
The old lady raised both her hands, kept them so, and without 
Baying another word, walked away in mute astonishment.” 


• Died since the manuscript was written. 



50 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


Mr. Pame still visited New Rochelle, while ostensibly with 
Mr. Jarvis. He had left Mr. Carver without any direct settle 
meat of accounts. Mr. Carver’s circumstances had now 
altered from some family affairs which he could not control, 
and altered circumstances produced altered feelings. When 
Mr. Carver was in good circumstances, he thought only of the 
honor and pleasure of having Mr. Paine under the same roof 
with him, the terms of his board were a secondary consider¬ 
ation. We have already remarked that no agreement was 
made. Now in altered circumstances, of which Mr. Paine 
does not appear to he aware, his charge was an object. 
In the first note from Carver to Mr. Paine on this subject, 
published by Cheetham, Mr. Carver uses this expression, “ 1 
have made a calculation of my expenditures on your account , the 
last time you were at my house , and find they amount to one 
hundred and fifty or sixty dollars .” He charges for twenty- 
two weeks for Mr. Paine and twelve for Mrs. Palmer, who 
assisted him in his illness ; and he takes no notice of the few 
things Mr. Paine had purchased. He reminds Mr. Paine of 
his riches, and concludes by saying that he should not ask one 
cent if he could afford it. Mr. Paine at this time did not ex¬ 
pect a long life. The fit and subsequent sickness had shaken 
his constitution. He had put Mr. Carver down in his will for 
n handsome sum ; and from the manner of the invitation and 
supposed circumstances of Mr. Carver, perhaps he never ex 
pected a formal charge. At any rate, Mr. Paine was indig 
nantat this charge., which he considered unjust, and proposed 
paying the money down at once, and having nothing more to 
do with him. This he was prevented from doing by Mr. John 
Fellows, who was present when the demand was made by Mr 
Carver’s boy. Mr. Fellows and Mr. Morton, the friends of 
Mr. Paine, considered the charge too high ; and these finally 
settled the account upon what they considered just principles 
The charge might have been perfectly just, as, in Mr. Carver’s 
altered circumstances, he might have remembered former 
hospitalities, for he refers to them in one of his letters. There 
might have been but a trifling difference had Mr. Paine made 
up the account. The fault was, not having a definite agree 
ment t and this foolish affair produced a quarrel. Mr. Paine 


CARVER S LETTER—CHEETHAM. 


151 


replied to this note in an angry manner to Mr. Carver, and 
Carver, remarkable for his boldness, replied in the severest 
terms possible, giving the very worst construction to 
every event concerning Mr. Paine he could think of. His 
epileptic fit he insinuates was drunkenness; and he infers an 
improper connexion with Madame Bonneville, merely however 
in an inuendo, with a sarcastic remark about young Thomas, the 
godson, being like Mr. Paine. He refers to his trouble when 
Mr. Paine was sick, and reminds him of the quantity of water 
he procured for his personal cleanliness. This personal 
quarrel was soon forgotten, and the angry letters should have 
been destroyed ; but both letters had been read in public by 
some zealous friends, and copies were taken. They ought to 
have been obliterated; but after Mr. Paine’s death, in 1809, 
Cheetham sought out Mr. Carver, obtained a copy, deceived 
him as to his intention and the nature of his publication, and 
published these letters against Carver’s will. The mere pub¬ 
lication of these letters would avail nothing among a candid 
people; they were avowedly written in anger, but there were 
persons who wished to believe. Even among such these 
angry letters could avail but little; but Mr. Cheetham, with 
fiendish ingenuity, not only .inserted these letters, but in other 
parts of his life, presuming on their publication, boldly asserts 
as facts what Carver had only insinuated, leaving the impres¬ 
sion that these letters are additional confirmations of the facts, 
instead of the only foundation for such reports. Thus he di¬ 
rectly charges Mr. Paine with adultery with Madame Bonne¬ 
ville. He charges him with drunkenness, coarseness, and 
dirtiness directly, which are only insinuated or implied in 
Carver’s angry letters. In the first charge Mrs. Bonneville 
was implicated, and she very properly prosecuted Cheetham. 
On the trial, which we have read, he could only bring Mr. 
Carver as witness, and Mr. Caryer could only say what he 
had before written, and his counsel was obliged to withdraw 
the justification and acknowledge that the accusation was a 
false and malicious libel. The other charges applied to Mr. 
Paine only , and he was dead and could not prosecute. We, 
after diligent inquiry, believe them also false and malicious, 
and that they have no other foundation than the angry letter 


152 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


of Mr. Carver, and the malicious revengeful spirit of Chee 
ham; for this reason we have detailed this foolish quarrel. 

We have now approached the year 1807, the seventieth ot 
Mr. Paine’s life, and two years only before his death. In the 
spring of this year he removed to Broome street, at one Mr 
Hitt’s, a baker ; here he lived some time ; and while in Broome 
street he published an examination of the passages in the New 
Testament, quoted from the Old, and called “Prophesies of 
Jesus Christ,” &c. This work shows all the acumen of his 
former works ; it marks the most laborious examination of the 
Scriptures. The Bible of Mr. Paine had been most carefully 
read, it was marked all over; indeed, no book had been read 
by him more than that. 

Mr. Paine lived successively in Partition street and afterward 
in Greenwich street, near the state-prison; but his sickness in¬ 
creased on him, and boarding-house attention was scarcely suf 
ficient. Madame Bonneville took a small house for him, May, 
1809, in Columbia*street, and here she attended on him till his 
death. Mr. Paine was perfectly conscious of his approaching 
dissolution, and some time before he wished to arrange for his 
burial in the quakers’ burying-ground, as the least obnoxious 
;o his feelings ; and for this purpose he applied to Mr. Willit 
Hicks, a preacher and influential member of that body, as his 
father had been of that persuasion. Mr. Hicks saw no objec¬ 
tion, he had no prejudice on his own account, and brought 
this subject before the church; and to their discredit they 
denied the request. 

While Mr. Paine was at Mr. Jarvis’s he seemed to foresee 
what would be the scene of his death-bed, and what some 
fanatical persons would attempt after his death. With that 
shrewdness of judgment which he always possessed, and which 
displayed itself during the revolution, by his instantly antici¬ 
pating what the British government would do, he was enabled 
to prepare the people for the various proclamations and de¬ 
ceptive propositions before they arrived; nay, some of these 
appeared but a repetition of Paine’s statements. The conse¬ 
quence was, they lost their effect, as far as his influence 
went. So, on this occasion, he foretold that when on a sick 

bed attempts would be made to convert him to Christianity, 

* Now Grove street. 


DEATH-BED OF MR. PAINE. 


153 


or to make it appear that he was converted ; and that after his 
death reports would be spread of his death-bed repentance, of 
his unbelief; then, appealing to Mr. Jarvis, he observed, 
“Now I am in health, and in perfect soundness of mind ; now 
is the time to express my opinion.” And thus having called 
Mr. Jarvis to witness, he solemnly repeated his belief in his 
already written opinions. 

What Mr. Paine had foreseen came to pass. As his illness 
assumed a fatal appearance he was visited by men and women 
who obtruded upon his last moments their religious principles, 
either from Christian simplicity and ignorant sincerity, and, 
most likely, in some of them, from hypocrisy ; in the hopes of 
being able to contort some of his answers into a manifestation 
of fear or conversion, or to give them an opportunity of in¬ 
venting a recantation for him. This is by no means an un¬ 
charitable supposition from the facts which followed his death, 
when the second part of Mr. Paine’s prophesy was fulfilled 
by an invention of the kind, and by pious falsehoods promul¬ 
gated to willing ears. The position is not uncharitable, for 
the dying moments of Voltaire have been misrepresented by 
similar pious frauds. Nor are these the only instances where 
base falsehoods have been perpetrated in the name of God 
for a supposed pious purpose. Even the judge, who after¬ 
ward sentenced Cheetham for a false and malicious libel on 
the memory of Mr. Paine and Madame Bonneville, declared 
Cheetham’s life a useful book, because it tended to suppress 
the influence of Mr. Paine’s writings. After these and other 
proofs of lying, for the sake of God, in remembrance too of 
the counterpart, we think we are justified in assuming that 
some of the visiters were hypocrites, and came there to dis¬ 
tort his answers, or as an excuse for invention, than for any 
reasonable hope of converting and saving his soul. Among 
the most prominent and zealous visiters of Mr. Paine in his 
last days were the Rev. Mr. Milledollar, a presbyterian 
clergyman, and the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, about a fortnight 
before Mr. Paine’s death. This latter gentleman told Paine 
that they visited him as friends and neighbors, and added, 
“ You have now a full view of death, you cannot live long, arid 
whosoever does not believe in Jesus Christ will assuredly be 

20 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


i04 

damned.” Mr. Paine replied, “ Let me have none of your 
popish stuff. Get away with you. Good morning, good 
morning.” Mr. Milledollar attempted to address him, but was 
interrupted by Mr. Paine ; and when they were gone, he said 
co Mrs. Hedden, his housekeeper, “ Don’t let’em come here 
again, they trouble me.” In spite of Mr. Paine’s declaration 
chese gentlemen again attempted to obtrude themselves upon 
fiim, but they were refused admittance, as directed, by Mrs. 
Hedden, who piously added, “ If God does not change his 
mind, she was sure no human power could.” 

Mr. Willit Hicks, himself a preacher, a most respectable 
member of the friends, and a man of high standing in the com¬ 
munity, yet alive, was then a neighbor of Mr. Paine, and in 
his last illness visited him daily, and on the day of his death. 
This gentleman, whom we especially visited, assured us that 
Mr. Paine was beset by clergymen; that on one occasion a 
methodist minister obtruded on Mr. Paine when he, Mr. 
Hicks, was present. The minister, we suppose sincerely, 
declared to Mr. Paine, with uplifted hands, that “ unless he 
repented of his unbelief he would be damned.” Mr. Hicks 
describes Mr. Paine as rising in his bed with indignation at 
the intrusion and ignorant presumption, and, sick as he was, 
declaring that if he was able he would immediately put him 
out of the room. We recently met one of these visiting 
parties who sought to convert Mr. Paine on his death-bed, a 
Mr. Pigott, formerly a legislator, and now a man of high 
moral standing. He has a brother a minister, a learned stu¬ 
dious man, but unfortunately blind. He was so at the time 
of Mr. Paine’s death, and he felt desirous of converting Mr. 
Paine, and engaged his brother, Mr. Pigott, our informant, to 
go with him. With some difficulty they obtained access, for 
Mr. Paine was then annoyed, as we have seen, by obtruders; 
but as this gentleman had once adopted the opinions of Mr. 
Paine, and was then blind, these qualities obtained the 
brothers an audience. Mr. Pigott remarked that Mr. Paine 
was in bed and sick, but that he received them with politeness, 
and cheerfully conversed with his brother, who was a learned 
thoughtful man ; but when his brother proceeded to state that 
he had changed his opinions, and about to urge on Mr. Paine, 


DEATH-BED OF MR. PAINE. 


155 


sincerely in this case no doubt, the necessity of re-examina¬ 
tion and conversion, Mr. Paine abruptly closed the con¬ 
versation, and intimated his displeasure, and a wish for their 
immediate departure ; and they thus left the room. Mr. Pigott 
describes Mr. !Paine as a large-faced man, with a most pene¬ 
trating eye, and immense expression of countenance, mark¬ 
ing lively sensibilities, which the peculiar character of the 
visit brought out; for he had seen him pleased with his 
brother, intelligent and communicative, and then indignant 
at supposing the brother could change his opinions. 

The friends of Mr. Paine visited him till his death. Mr. 
Jarvis saw him one or two days before his dissolution, and on 
that day he had expected to die during the night, to Mr. Jarvis 
he expressed a continued belief in his written opinions ; of 
this we are informed by Mr. Jarvis. Mr. Thomas Nixon, and 
his old friend Mr. Pelton, visited him expressly on the subject 
of his opinions, so did Mr. B. F. Hasken, a respectable attor¬ 
ney, now residing in Chambers street, New York ; and, as they 
say, aware that falsehoods might be resorted to, because 
such means had before been used with others, they put down 
Mr. Paine’s answers in writing. But when they first proposed 
their questions, as Mr. Paine did not know their motive, he 
seemed hurt that they should suppose he had any doubts on 
the subject. We have this account personally from Mr. 
Hasken, and we shall give a letter from Mr. T. Nixon and 
Mr. D. Pelton in another place. Mr. Paine suffered consider¬ 
ably in his illness, but he retained his mental faculties to the 
last. Death made slow approaches, and dropsy, attended by a 
cough and vomiting, were the last symptoms of approaching 
dissolution. On the eighth of June, about nine in the morn¬ 
ing, he died, placid and almost without a struggle, notwith¬ 
standing his previous sufferings. And his last words, as re¬ 
corded by Dr. Manley were—“ *1 have no wish to believe on 
the subject,” in answer to the question, “ Do you wish to 
believe that Jesus is the Son of God V’ put by the pious doctor 
himself, who was curious on the subject. 

Fortunately we have the living testimony of the person who 
sat up with Mr. Paine on the night previous to his death. 
This testimony cost us a journey to Boston, but we are 


156 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


amply repaid for our labor. On our return we published the 
testimony in the Beacon of June 5, 1839, Vol. III., page 240. 
A precaution we have taken for these eight years, during 
which time we have had the command of a press; for aware 
that many of the witnesses to this history, being then advanced 
in years, might die, we published their testimony in detail 
while yet alive, and capable of verifying our statements if 
correct, or of contradicting them if erroneous. As a speci¬ 
men of this method of chronicling events, which we meant to 
imbody in this work, we extract the following from the Bea¬ 
con (see reference above) :— 

THOMAS PAINe’s DEATH-BED. 

M We have just returned from Boston. One object of our 
visit to that city, was to see a Mr. Amasa Woodsworth, an 
engineer, now retired in a handsome cottage and garden at 
East Cambridge, Boston. This gentleman owned the house 
rented by Mrs. Bonneville for Mr. Paine at his death ; while 
he lived next door. As an act of kindness Mr. Woodsworth 
visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before his death ; 
he frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last two 
nights of his life. He was always there with Dr. Manley the 
physician, and assisted in removing Mr. Paine, while his bed 
was prepared: he was present when Dr. Manley asked Mr. 
Paine 4 if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son 
of God,’ and he describes Mr. Paine’s answer as animated. 
He says, that lying on his back, he used some action, and 
with mu.ch emphasis replied, ‘ I have no wish to believe on 
that subject.’ He lived a short time after this, but was not 
known to speak, for he died tranquilly. He accounts for the 
insinuating style of Dr. Manley’s letter, by stating that that 
gentleman just after its publication joined a church. He in¬ 
forms us that he has openly reproved the doctor for the falsity 
contained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring before 
Dr. Manley, who is yet living, that nothing which he saw 
justified his (the doctor’s) insinuations. Mr. Woodsworth 
assures us that he neither heard nor saw anything to justify 
the belief of any mental change in the opinions of Mr. Paine 
previous to his death; but that being very ill and in pain, 
chiefly arising from the skin being removed in some parts by 
long laying, he was generally too uneasy to enjoy conversa¬ 
tion on abstract subjects. This, then, is the best evidence 
that can be procured on this subject, and we publish it while 
the contravening parties are yet alive, and with the authority 
of Mr. Woodsworth.— g. v.” 


DEATH OF MR. PAINE 


157 


Mr. Woodsworth is yet alive, and his testimony has derived 
additional importance from the evidence of Mr. Willet Hicks, 
which we shall shortly give. We refer especially to his re¬ 
marks on the conduct of Dr. Manley; and when we produce 
Mr. Hicks* evidence, we shall have to request that our readers 
will return to the previous page, and again read this testimony, 
and compare it with that evidence. 

The day after the death of Mr. Paine he was taken from his 
house in Greenwichvillage to New Rochelle, attended by a few 
friends, and was there buried on his farm, and a plain stone 
was erected to his memory, with the following inscription:— 

THOMAS PAINE, 

AUTHOR OF “ COMMON SENSE.’* 

Died June 8, 1809, aged seventy-two years and Jive months. 

Mr. Paine left behind him a manuscript in answer to Bishop 
Watson. A copy of this is now in the hands of Madame Bon¬ 
neville. A catholic priest in this country borrowed another 
copy of her, which has never been returned. 

In reviewing the life of Mr. Thomas Paine, we can see no 
defect in his public character. He was a citizen of the world, 
and served its interests to the best of his abilities, which were 
great. “ Where liberty is, that is my country,” said Dr. 
Franklin. Mr. Paine replied, “ Where liberty is not , that is 
my country,” in reference to his exertions for liberty in the 
United States, England, and France. Paine wrote for man¬ 
kind, and he maybe emphatically styled “ the friend of man.” 
Here he was a good citizen, and a firm supporter of the gov¬ 
ernment ; because that government is based upon the rights 
of man, with the exception of the recognition of slavery in the 
southern states, unfortunately engrafted on the community 
before the war of independence. Whatever may be the 
opinion of Mr. Paine’s theological works, his honesty in pub¬ 
lishing them cannot be doubted by any impartial reader. He 
believed those opinions true, and he believed the truth useful 
to mankind ; while his especial object was to establish a re- 
igious principle in France, then becoming atheistical. The 


158 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


best argument in support of deism is to be found in the firs 
part of the “ Age of Reason.” In this view of the subject Mr. 
Paine ought to have been taken by the hand by every believer 
in the existence, wisdom, power, and goodness of one supreme 
God, the maker and sustainer of the universe. Mr. Paine gave 
up the copyright of his theological works, just as he had done 
that of his political, and for the same reason, public good 
His prudence in publishing his “ Age of Reason,” has been 
doubted; and if he had been ambitious, and had consulted his 
own interest, he would have abstained from such a publication ; 
but he was neither ambitious nor covetous, except of honest 
fame, from honest and intelligent men, and that he has ob¬ 
tained. His political career was run, and the doors apparently 
closed against an extension of liberty at that time, and there 
fore his political usefulness was not injured. The United 
States had accomplished her independence ; the revolution in 
France was completed, and liberty disgraced by excesses 
which the “ Age of Reason” was intended to restrain, as it 
taught toleration ; while in England the cause of liberty was 
checked by war, and his political works suppressed; but 
church aggressions were oppressive ; there the “Age of Reason” 
had nearly effected a revolution, and the odious system of 
tythes was almost prostrated. We cannot then admit that 
Mr. Paine was imprudent in the publication. The age of 
reason has now arrived, at least in New York, and every man 
chooses to read and think for himself, whatever may be his 
conclusions ; and Mr. Paine was scarcely in advance of the 
age. 

Of Mr. Paine’s private character, we cannot say it was per¬ 
fect. We should be sorry if we could; for then we could 
not hope to be believed. Mr. Paine was a part of human 
nature, and partook of its imperfections. He wrote a foolish 
angry letter to Carver. He was, no doubt, penurious, to a 
limited extent, in his old age ; and in sickness we can easily 
conceive of his being sometimes peevish and angry ; he would 
not be man if he were not; but these are all the personal 
blemishes w r e can discover, and these are counterbalanced by 
the most noble and social qualities. He had a heart to feel 
for the distresses of mankind, and a head to conceive the 


mr. prime’s private life. 


159 


menns of relief. The charge of Madame Bonneville and family 
was at once an act of generosity and gratitude, however unpleas¬ 
ant their different tastes, or sense of propriety rendered their 
mutual duties. Mr. Paine possessed every prominent virtue 
(if not in perfection, which human nature forbids) in large 
proportions j and to these he added the most social qualities, 
in public, without being a great talker, he was cheerful, commu¬ 
nicative, abounding in information and anecdote, and in private 
he was not less agreeable, on the testimony of Mr. John 
Fellows, Mr. Jarvis, and a host of others, his companions 
Few people are aware of the morals and decorum of Mr. Paine. 
We have already observed that he never used vulgar oaths, 
and that he even goodhumoredly reproved his friends who 
did. Mr. Jarvis, who gave us the above information, observed 
that he once, by way of a joke, advised Mr. Paine to recant, 
and publish his recantation as a hoax, assuring him that he 
would then make a large fortune and get a good living. Mr 
Paine, shaking his head, replied, “ Tom Paine never told a lie.” 
We do not discover in Mr. Paine, on any account, even a 
prevarication $ such was his love of truth, while he had too 
much sense to be the dupe of the falsehood of others. The 
charge of drunkenness we can find no ground for, unless it 
occurred in France for a short period; and yet the company 
he there kept seems to forbid it. But as this charge is so 
generally believed we shall take the liberty of naming a few 
persons who knew him personally during his last residence in 
New York, some of whom were in the habit of meeting him 
in public, and others in public and private societies, his com 
panions for years ; and of these, none ever saw him drunk, and 
most of them are well known and respected for their veracity 
Among others, are Mr. John Fellows,* Mr. D. Burger,f Mr 
Ming, senr., Judge Herttell, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Bassinet, Nassau 
street, Mr. B. F. Haskin, attorney, Chambers street, Mr. H 
Magary, Willet Hicks, &c., &c., to which we could add a 
number now dispersed about the states, as Amasa Woods- 
worth, near Boston, and all the old inhabitants ofNew Rochelle 
There exists, too, a note on this subject to Mr. Caleb 

* Saw him once elevated, after attending a dinner-party 

' Since dead 


160 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


Bingham, booli seller, Boston, from Mr. Lovett, now deceased, 
but formerly of the City hotel, New York, where Mr. Paine 
put up after his last return to this country. In that note Mr. 
Lovett declares that Mr. Paine drank less than any of his 
other boarders, while at his hotel: and this accords with what 
Mr. Jarvis and others have informed us, that “ he did not, and 
could not, drink much.” Our author, for the existence of 
this note, is Mr. John Fellows, a gentleman well known, 
and whose veracity was never doubted. The note was written 
to answer an inquiry, and shown to Mr. John Fellows, our in¬ 
formant. This subject is puerile in itself, were there not a host 
who sincerely believe Mr. Paine to have been disgustingly a 
drunkard or a sot. Others of liberal minds, would at once 
perceive that he who possessed all his faculties to an advanced 
age unimpaired, could not commonly indulge in such gross 
excesses ; and if he had indulged in excesses sometimes only, 
it was merely a fault in the age which has passed. But v> e 
have a much more important inference, beside a desire to 
undeceive those who have been duped. We think we have 
given abundant evidence that Mr. Paine was neither a sot nor 
drunkard ; and we know of no contrary evidence, nothing but 
hearsay, which, when approached, vanishes. How then ar . 
we to regard this slander, its circulation, its reiteration, the 
boldness of the assailants, and the variety of forms it assumed, 
from the pulpit, the press, and in prints ; and in private, from 
mouth to mouth, till his very friends were deceived, as we 
were, till we commenced this investigation. What now is 
the secret cause of slander, but the desire to check the influ¬ 
ence of an individual or his writings. Could the “ Age of 
Reason” and “Rights of Man” have been replied to, as he 
replied to Burke, we should never have heard these slanders; 
and kings and priests, lordlings, an aristocracy and their syco¬ 
phants, and the sincerely pious, but duped disciples of Jesus, 
never would have formed one mighty mass to circulate a petty 
slander but from fear. Some feared the truth—it would dis¬ 
turb their old prejudices ; but others feared reform, because 
where equal rights are maintained, privileges must be yielded, 
and the leeches on society must give up their hold. But why 
did the slanderers fix on the minor vice of inebriety 1 It is 


THE SLANDERERS OF MR. PAINE. 16 1 

clear, by.fixing on so small a vice as inebriety for the subject 
of slander, that there was no pretence even for other vices 
Had he been unjust , not addicted to truth, a man wanting 
principle, or possessed of any public vice, these would neces¬ 
sarily have been laid hold of; and this is a negative evidence 
that no pretence for public vice existed. But how are we to 
regard his slanderers, the great body of whom are sincere, re¬ 
ligious, and feminine. What an amalgamation do the slanderers 
of Paine present. The young girl of pious education vocifer¬ 
ating Tom Paine, the filthy, drunken, Tom Paine ; the pious 
teacher, perhaps also deceived, but without examination, 
preaching from the pulpit, that the opponent of the gospel 
scheme lived and died a degraded, a drunken beinof. To 
these are added the arch hypocrite, who knows the slander,but, 
from interested motives, joins the bitter cry of Tom Paine and 
inebriety. To these again are added the thousands of decent 
people of all religions, who, finding it fashionable to pronounce 
the name of Paine with a sneer, generously believe what 
everybody says ; and these add their mite of slander, making 
in the aggregate a mountain. But to these must yet be added 
the politician, the sneaking artful man who could not afford 
to lose a vote, and who, conscious of the contrary, chimes in 
with the pious, and pronounces Tom Paine and excess with su¬ 
preme disgust, as an assurance that the speaker, the politician,, 
is neither sot, drunkard, nor infidel; but even the political 
drunkard will join the throng, and in his beer become ex¬ 
tremely pious, and denounce Tom Paine as drunken and: dirty,, 
beins: willin'* to believe what he wishes to be truey as an 
excuse for himself, and degrading to the principles which 
Paine manifested, and which our drunken politician esehews. 
This mass have sought to overwhelm the name of Paine by 
associating it with intoxication, for which there is not a par¬ 
ticle of proof. We cannot say a shadow , for a shadow there 
was, and this, perhaps, rendered the extension of the slander 
easy. Mr. Paine used but did not abuse, liquor. He had a 
large florid face, and this, we believe, favored the report 
among those who only knew him by sight. If now we push 
back the slander, on whom does it resu Are the sincere jus¬ 
tified, because of their sincerity, in propagating slander 1 Is it 

21 


62 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


in accordance with their religion 1 It is evident it exists, with 
religion most sincere. It exists with the ministers of religion^ 
some of whom were sincere but ignorant, others, not sincere, 
but interested 5 but the whole body was contaminated, minister 
and people, by circulating slander. This then was the visible 
religion Mr. Paine would have uprooted, while the political 
tyrants and sycophants, who joined the crusade, from the 
basest motives, and they have now their representatives, but 
ill contrast in sentiment and feelings with the noble principles 
of the man whose fame they would suppress. “ The world 
my country, to do good my religion,” were the sublime senti¬ 
ments of this sincere and able advocate of human rights, 
whose fair fame has been thus abused. 

Immediately on the death of Mr. Paine, Cheetham, his polit¬ 
ical enemy, began to collect materials for his life, which was 
published the same year. We have already noticed the manner 
in which he collected those materials, and the recklessness 
with which he repeated the grossest and most malicious false¬ 
hoods, while in the most impudent manner he inserted the 
names of living witnesses. His conviction in the case of 
Madame Bonneville did something to undeceive the public : 
still Mr. Paine’s memory suffers from this malignity. We 
had by us Mr. Carver’s copy of Cheetham’s first edition of the 
“Life of Paine,” including the matter for which he (Cheet¬ 
ham) was prosecuted. This copy Mr. Carver sold to Mr. 
Parkins, ex-sheriff of London, and he, Mr. Parkins, loaned it 
to us. The book is margined by notes in Carver’s hand¬ 
writing ; a few of which we shall notice or extract, although 
they are extremely coarse. 

The first note on the blank leaf after the preface, charges 
Cheetham with villifying Mr. Paine, and also Mr. Palmer, and 
plainly calls Mr. Cheetham a hypocrite. To this Carver puts 
his name and address, 36 Cedar street. Page 47 , Cheetham 
says, “ ‘Common Sense’ has no merit” Carver adds, “One 
more of Cheetham’s lies.” Page 209, Cheetham pretends a 
great reverence for received religious opinions. Carver adds, 
“ I believe Cheetham was an athiest, as he told me that 
Mirabeau’s ‘System of Nature’ could never be answered. 
He was a hypocrite.” Page 210, Carver says, “ Cheetham fol- 


cheetham’s falsehoods. 


163 


/owed Palmer in principles, but was not half as good and moral 
a man.” He adds, “ Cheetham was an abominable liar.” 
This last expression is repeated in various parts of the book, 
with some variations, such as, “ Cheetham was a liar, and, if 
reports are true, he should have treated his wife better.” On 
the last page Carver adds, “ I once told Cheetham in his own 
house, as that he had had his hands crossed with British gold.” 
This is one of the witnesses to whom Cheetham constantly 
refers; and this witness thus denounces the man who refers 
to him, in the plain language we have shown, as not to be 
relied on. Mr. Jarvis is another, and he too uses the same 
expressions, in relation to Cheetham, which Carver does. 
Could we then get access to the other living witness to 
whom Cheetham refers for proofs of Mr. Paine’s failings, we 
might find in them the same indignation and conviction of 
Cheetham’s impudence and falsehoods.* 

The cunning of Cheetham, in getting up materials for the 
life of Paine, will clearly be seen by again referring to Joel 
Barlow’s letter to Cheetham (page 135). It is clear that Barlow 
was deceived, and we were deceived when we first read this let¬ 
ter in Cheetham’s life of Paine, and continued deceived till we 
had examined the question of Mr. Paine’s habits of temperance 
during the last years in New York. We then re -read Barlow’s 
letter, and discovered the cunning. Mr. Barlow was in France 
at the time of Mr. Paine’s death and knew not his habits. 
Cheetham wrote to him, informed him of his object, mentioned 
that Paine was drunken and low in his company toward the 
latter years of his life, and says he was informed that he was 
drunk when taken to prison in France. Now Mr. Barlow 
does not contradict Cheetham ; he could not, as Cheetham had 
the better opportunity of knowing facts, and Mr. Barlow does 
not suspect him of falsehood j as who would 1 He therefore 

* Cheetham sported with truth. He published in his paper an account of Burr’s 
duel with Hamilton, in which he declared that Burr had undergarments of silk, 
to turn off the ball if hit, and that a garment of silk would do this; for that a 
Mr. Lawrence, then well known, had by accident fired off a pistol, that the ball 
struck his leg, and turned off from the effect of the silk-stocking. On the 
Sunday following Judge Herttell dined where Cheetham was, when he related the 
story of this publication as a hoax, and laughed at the people’s credulity ; as we 
are informed by Mr. Herttell. 


164 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


presumes Mr. Cheetham correct in the statement, and goes on 
not to excuse Paine, but to present his acknowledged good 
qualities as a set-ofF. Then Cheetham publishes this letter 
and presents, to a cursory reader, Mr. Joel Barlow as acknowl¬ 
edging Mr. Paine’s intemperance, and other infirmities, which 
had no other foundation than Cheetham’s declaration, given 
to deceive Barlow 5 who afterward, as we have seen, gives 
Barlow’s letter to deceive the public. In the next place 
Cheetham informs Mr. Barlow that he had heard Mr. Paine 
was drunk when sent to prison, and boldly gives his authority; 
as he did in the libel case Here Mr. Barlow happened to be 
qualified to judge, for Paine was brought to his house when he 
was arrested, and Mr. Barlow distinctly disavows the state 
ments; but he is too polite, or too unsuspicious, to suppose 
himself cheated ; yet it is evident on this assertion and alleged 
evidence, had Mr. Barlow not known by accident the contrary, 
he too would have presumed the fact on Cheetham’s state¬ 
ment, and, perhaps, would have endeavored to excuse Mr. 
Paine for being intoxicated at such a time; when the fact 
was, he was not intoxicated, nor is there any evidence that he 
was in the habit of being intoxicated. Of the referee, Mr. 
Murray,our friend Mr. John Fellows thus speaks:— 

“ I happen to know something of the Mr. Murray alluded to 
above, whose testimony Mr. Barlow proves to be false. It is 
thus,that Cheetham collected stories injurious to the character 
of Paine. Mr. Murray was an English speculator in France, in 
the time of the revolution, and was once imprisoned as a spy. 
His enmity to Paine and the principles for which France was 
contending, I am confident (from my knowledge of the man), 
would induce him to fabricate any story calculated to throw 
obloquy upon either.” 

Now who can doubt but that Cheetham knew the qualiti.es 
of this man, whom he used as a referee', especially after we 
have seen the unscrupulous character of Cheetham as to truth. 
But perhaps it will be asked, what could induce Cheetham 
thus to lie 1 We have before remarked, that Cheetham had 
edited the leading republican paper ; but that he-had become 
a renegade, and was then in support of the English tory party, 
and was preparing to go to England, when he died. His life 


PAINE AND CHEETHAM. 


155 

of Paine lie knew was a passport to the English court, and he 
intended to defend the Bible and crown against Cobbet, who 
had shortly before broken his connexion with the English 
government, and was then in successful opposition. Such is 
the evidence we obtained from a gentleman who was then 
head-clerk to Cheetham, and this we find sustained by others. 
Besides, Paine had been very severe on Cheetham for his 
political change ; and this would stimulate his revenge. The 
following, published by Mr. Paine a short time before his 
death, will show the relation Mr. Cheetham bore to Mr. Paine 
at that time, and how badly qualified such a man must be for 
an impartial biographer. Mr. Paine had published an article 
in the Public Advertiser, on the defence of the harbor of New 
York. Cheetham had attacked Paine on that article, and Mr. 
Paine in his reply remarks:— 


“ Mr. Cheetham speaks much about Locke, and says, that 
‘all political elementary writers on government since the days 
of Locke, including Mr. Paine, are but the mere retailers of 
his ideas and doctrines.’ This is John Bullism all over. 

He also says, that ‘ on hereditary and elective government, 
Mr. Paine, in his “Common Sense” and “ Rights of Man,” 
has followed Locke idea for idea.’ It may be so for what I 
know, for I never read Locke, nor ever had the work in my 
hand, and by what I have heard of it from Horne Tooke, I had 
no inducement to read it. It is a speculative, not a practical 
work, and the style of it is heavy and tedious, as all Locke’s 
writings are. 

I suppose Locke has spoken of hereditary and elective mon¬ 
archy, but the representative, as laid down in ‘ Common 
Sense’and ‘Rights of Man,’ is an entirely different thing to 
elective monarchy. So far from taking any ideas from Locke 
or from anybody else, it was the absurd expression of a mere 
John Bull in England, about the year 1773, that first caused 
me to turn my mind to systems of government. In speaking 
of the then king of Prussia, called the Great Frederick, he 
said, ‘He is the right sort of man for a king, for he has a deal 
of the devil in him.’ This set me to think if a system of gov¬ 
ernment could not exist that did not require the devil, and I 
succeeded without any help from anybody. It is a great 
deal that may be learned from absurdity, and I expect to learn 
something from James Cheetham. When I do, I will let him 
know in the Public Advertiser. 

In the conclusion of the piece of mine, which Mr. Cheetham 
has vomited his spleen upon, I threw out some reproach 


166 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


against those who, instead of practising themselves in arms 
and artillery, that they might be prepared to defend New 
York, should it be attacked, were continually employing 
themselves on imaginary fortifications, and skulking behind 
projects of obstruction. As Mr. Cheetham supposed himself 
included in this description (and he thought right), he made, 
as he imagined, an effectual retort, but in doing this, as in 
everything else he does, he betrayed his want of knowledge 
both as to the spirit and circumstances of the times h 
speaks of. 

‘ I would not,’ says Mr. Cheetham, ‘ charge with cowardice 
that gentleman [meaning me], who, in the “ times that tried 
men’s souls,” stuck very correctly to his pen in a safe retreat 
and never handled a musket offensively.’ 

By this paragraph, Mr. Cheetham must have supposed, that 
when congress retreated from Philadelphia to Baltimore, in 
the ‘ times that tried men’s souls,’ that I retreated with them 
as secretary to the committee for foreign affairs. 

In the first place, the committee for foreign affairs did not 
exist at that time. 

In the next place, I served in the army the whole of the 

* time that tried men’s souls,’ from the beginning to the end. 

Soon after the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, 
congress recommended that a body of ten thousand men, to 
be called the flying camp, because it was to act wherever 
necessary, should be formed from the militia and volunteers 
of Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. I went with one 
division from Pennsylvania, under General Roberdea'u. We 
were stationed at Perth Amboy, and afterward at Bergen ; 
and when the time of the flying camp expired, and they went 
home, I went to Fort Lee, and served as aid-de-camp to 
Greene, who commanded at Fort Lee, and was with him 
through the whole of the black times of that trying campaign. 

I began the first number of the ‘ Crisis,’ beginning with the 
well-known expression, ‘ These are the times that try men’s 
souls’, at Newark, upon the retreat from Fort Lee, and con¬ 
tinued writing it at every place we stopped at, and had it printed 
at Philadelphia the 19th of December, six days before the 
taking the Hessians at Trenton, which, with the affair at 
Princeton, the week after, put an end to the black times. 

It therefore is not true, that I stuck to my pen in a safe 
retreat with congress from Philadelphia to Baltimore in the 

* times that tried men’s souls.’ But if I had done so, I should 
not have published the cowardice James Cheetham has done. 
In speaking of the affair of the Driver sloop-of-war, at Charles¬ 
ton, South Carolina, he said in his paper, if the Driver and her 
comrades should take into their heads to come here (New 
York), we must submit. What abominable cowardice, for a 
man to have such a thought in his mind, that a city containing 



paine’s reprimand of cheetham. 


16*7 


twenty thousand able-bodied men, numbers of them as stout 
in person as himself, should submit to a sloop-of-war containing 
about a hundred and fifty men. 

After this, Mr. Cheetham will take care how he attacks old 
revolutionary characters, whose undiscouraged intrepidity, in 
the ‘ times that tried men’s souls,’ made a home for him to 
come to. 

Thomas Paine 

New York, Aug. 21, 1807.” 

“ REPRIMAND TO JAMES CHEETHAM. 

If James Cheetham, editor of the 1 New York American 
Citizen,’ thinks to draw me into a controversy with him, he 
is greatly mistaken. In the first place, I hold him too cheap ; 
and his well-known character for abuse and blackguarding, 
renders any altercation with him dishonorable ; and beside 
this, it would take up too much of my time to put his blunders 
to-rights. He cannot write without blundering, neither can 
he write truth, of which I will give another instance. 

He quotes the following paragraph from the first part of 
* Rights of Man,’ and then grounds a false assertion upon it:— 

‘ Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, 
in .all cases, as the ages and generations that preceded it. The 
vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the 
most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no 
property in man, neither has one generation a property in the 
generation that is to follow.’ 

Mr. Cheetham having made this short quotation says: ‘Mr. 
Paine here and there glances at the absurdity of hereditary 
government, but the passage just quoted is the only attempt 
at argument against it contained in the “ Rights of Man.” ’ 

Is James Cheetham an idiot, or has the envy and malignity 
of his mind possessed him with a spirit of wilful lying 1 

The short passage he has quoted (which is taken from the 
middle of a paragraph) is on the third, and in some editions 
on the fourth page of the first part of ‘Rights of Man.’ It 
contains a general principle, on which the arguments and 
statements against hereditary succession are founded in the 
progress of that work. 

If Mr. Cheetham had looked farther into the work, ‘ Rights 
of Man,’ he would have come to a paragraph ending with the 
expression, ‘ hereditary succession cannot be established as a 
legal thing .’ The work then goes on to say :— 

‘In order to arrive at a more perfect decision on this head 
(that is, that hereditary succession cannot be established as a 
legal thing), it is proper to consider the generation which 
undertakes to establish a family with hereditary powers, apart 
and separate from the generations which are to follow, and 


168 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


also to consider the character in which the generation acts 
with respect to succeeding generations. 

4 The generation which selects a person and puts him at the 
head of its government with the title of king, or any other 
distinction, acts its own choice, be it wise or foolish, as a free 
agent for itself. The person so set up is not hereditary, but 
selected and appointed, and the generation which sets him up 
do not live under an hereditary government, but under a gov 
ernment of its own choice and establishment. Were the 
generation which set him up, and the person so set up, to live 
for ever, it never could become hereditary succession ; and, of 
consequence, hereditary succession can only take place on the 
death of the first parties. 

As, therefore, hereditary succession is out of the question 
with respect to the first generation, we have now to consider 
the character in which that generation acts with respect to the 
commencing generation, and to all succeeding ones. 

It assumes a character to which it has neither right nor 
title. It changes itself from a legislator to a testator, and af¬ 
fects to make its will, which is to. have operation after the 
demise of the makers, to bequeath the government; and it not 
only attempts to bequeath, but to establish over the succeeding 
generation a new and different form of government from that 
under which itself lived. Itself, as already observed, lived not 
under an hereditary government, but under a government of its 
own choice and establishment, and it now attempts, by virtue 
of a will and testament, which it has no authority to make, to 
take from the commencing generation, and all succeeding ones, 
the right and free agency by which itself acted.’ 

Now, without giving any farther extracts from the work, 
4 Rights of Man,’ on the subject of hereditary succession, what 
is here given ought to cover James Cheetham with shame for 
the falsehood he has advanced. But as a man who has no sense 
of honor has no sense of shame, Mr. Cheetham will be able 
to read this with an unblushing front. 

Several writers before Locke had remarked on the absurdity 
of hereditary succession, but there they stopped. Buchanan, 
a Scots historian, who lived more than a hundred years before 
Locke, reproaches Malcolm II., king of Scotland, and his 
father, Kenethus, for making the crown of Scotland hereditary 
in his family, ‘ by which means,’ says Buchanan, ‘ the kingdom 
must frequently be possessed by a child or a fool; whereas 
before, the Scots used to make choice of that prince of the 
royal family that was best qualified to govern and protect his 
people.’ 

But I know of no author, nor of any work, before 4 Common 
Sense’ and ‘ Rights of Man’ appeared, that has attacked and 
exposed hereditary succession on the ground of illegality, 
which is the strongest of all grounds to attack it upon ; for if 


PAINE AND CHEETHAM. 


169 


the right to set it up do not exist—and that it does not is certain, 
because it is establishing a form of government, not for them¬ 
selves, but for a future race of people—all discussion upon the 
subject ends at once. But James Cheetham has not sense 
enough to see this. 

He has got something into his head about Locke, and he 
keeps it there, for he does not give a single quotation from him 
to support the random assertion he makes concerning Locke. 

‘It is to Locke in particular,’ says Cheetham, ‘ who wrote 
his incomparable essay on government in 1689, that we are 
almost wholly indebted for those political lights which con¬ 
ducted us to our revolution.’ 

■This is both libellous and false. The revolutionary contest 
began in opposition to the assumed rights of the British par¬ 
liament ‘ to bind America in all cases whatsoever,' and there 
can be nothing in Locke, who wrote in 1689, that can have 
reference to such a case. The tax upon tea, which brought 
on hostilities, was an experiment on the part of the British 
government to enforce the practice of that assumed right, 
which was called the declaratory act. James Cheetham tnlks 
of times and circumstances he knows nothing of, for he did 
not come here till several years after the war ; yet in speaking 
of the revolution, he uses the words we, and us, and our revo¬ 
lution. It is common in England, in ridiculing self-conceited 
importance, to say, ‘ What a long tail our cat has got!’ 

The people of America, in conducting their revolution, 
learned nothing from Locke ; nor was his name, or his work, 
ever mentioned during the revolution, that I know of. The 
case America was in was a new one, without any former ex¬ 
ample, and the people had to find their way as well as they 
could by the lights that arose among themselves, of which I 
can honestly and proudly say, I did my part. Locke was 
employed by the first settlers of South Carolina to draw up a 
form of government for that province, but it was such an 
inconsistent aristocratical thing, that it was rejected. Perhaps 
Mr. Cheetham does not know of this, but he may know it if he 
will inquire. 

Mr. Cheetham hypocritically says, 1 1 advise Mr. Paine, as a 
friend, to write no more.’ 

In return for this civility in words, I will inform him of 
something for his good, which is, that he has been going down 
hill in the opinion of the republicans for a long time past. 
Good principles will defend themselves ; but the abuse and 
scurrility in Cheetham’s paper have given very general offence 
to his subscribers. Another complaint is, that his paper is 
not a newspaper. It does not give the news from Europe till 
it becomes old in every other paper. There are, perhaps, two 
causes for this: as a John Bull, he does not like the news 

22 


170 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


from Europe and as a dabbler in scribbling, he prefers filling 
his paper with his own stuff. 

It is probable he will be called upon to explain on what 
ground of compromise (for it has the appearance of a com- 
promise)the intimacy between him and the Anglo-Irish emissary 
Cullen, alias Carpenter, began and continued. He is now 
giving symptoms of becoming a successor of Cullen, as Cullen 
was the successor of Cobbett. As there is now a well-con¬ 
ducted republican paper established in New York (the Public 
Advertiser), Mr. Cheetham cannot have the same range for 
his scurrility he had before. 

ThomAs Paine 

September 5,1S07 ” 

“ CHEETHAM AND HIS TORY PAPER.* 

Cheetham is frequently giving symptoms of being the sue 
cessor of Cullen , alias Carpenter , as Cullen was the successor 
of Cobbett , alias Porcupine. Like him, he is seeking to involve 
the United States in a quarrel with France for the benefit 
of England. 

In his paper of Tuesday, September 22, he has a long 
abusive piece against France, under the title of “ Remarks ” 
on the speech of the arch-chancellor of France to the French 
senate. This is a matter that Cheetham, as an adopted 
American citizen, has no business with ; and as a John Bull it 
is impertinence in him to come here to spit out his venom 
against France. But Cheetham cannot live without quarreling, 
nor write without abuse. He is a disgrace to the republicans, 
whose principle is to live in peace and friendship with all na¬ 
tions, and not to interfere in the domestic concerns of any. 

Cheetham seems to regret that peace is made on the con¬ 
tinent of Europe, and he shows his spleen against it by the 
following roundabout scurrilous paragraph. 

‘The people of France,’ says he, ‘now breathe the air of 
peace, under slavery, closer, more systematic, military, and 
universal [Cheetham knows nothing about it], than that with 
which they were overwhelmed previous to the beginning of 
the long continued calamity.’ This is spoken exactly in the 
character of a stupid prejudiced John Bull, who, shut up in 
his island, and ignorant of the world, suppose all nations 
slaves but themselves ; whereas, those at a distance can see, 
that of all people enslaved by their own governments, none 
are so much so as the people of England. Had Cheetham 
stayed in England till this time, he would have had to shoulder 
a musket, and this would have been dreadful to him, for, as all 


This piece was the cause of a duel between Cheetham and Frank 


PAINE AND CHEETHAM. 171 

bullies are cowards, the smell of gunpowder would be as horrid 
to Cheetham, as the scent of a skunk to other animals. 

The danger to which the city of New York was exposed, 
by the continual abuse of France in such papers as Cullen’s, 
was, that the French government might be induced to consider 
the city of New York as a British colony, such as it was during 
the revolutionary war, and exclude her from the commerce of 
the continent of Europe, as she has excluded Britain. Cheet¬ 
ham is following the footsteps of Cullen. 

The French nation, under all its changes of government, has 
always behaved in a civil and friendly manner to the United 
States. We have no cause of dispute with France. It was 
by the aid of France in men, money, and ships,* that the revolu¬ 
tion and independence of the United States were so completely 
established, and it is scarcely sufferable that a prejudiced and 
surly-tempered John Bull should fix himself among us to abuse 
a friendly power. 

September 25, 1807.” 


“ NOTE TO CHEETHAM. 

Mr. Cheetham: Unless you make a public apology for the 
abuse and falsehood in your paper of Tuesday, October 27, 
respecting me, I will prosecute you for lying. 

It is by your talent for abuse and falsehood, that you have 
brought so many prosecutions on your back. You cannot even 
state truth without running it to falsehood. There was matter 
enough against Morgan Lewis without going a syllable' beyond 
the truth. 

Thomas Paine 

October 27, 1807.” 

' * 

“ TO THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. 

In a letter from the president of the United States, of Oc¬ 
tober 9, after his mentioning that he did not expect the Revenge 
back under a month from that date, adds, i In the meantime , 
all the little circumstances coming to our knowledge are un¬ 
favorable to our wishes for peace. 1 

As this might be useful information to men in mercantile 
pursuits and speculations, and who had no guide to go by, 
whether to send out their vessels, or not, I mentioned it to 
such of my republican friends as called to see me; and that 
the information, if so useful, might not be confined to one 
distinction of men only, I mentioned it also to Mr. Coleman, 
of the Evening Post, who came to me on account of a piece I 

* Six thousand French troops under General Rochambeau, and thirty-one sail- 
of-the-line under Admiral de Grasse, assisted at the capture of Cornwallis at 
Iforktown, Virginia, which put an end to the war. 


172 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


fc'ent to him concerning Cheetham’s insulting message to Mr. 
Frank, of the Public Advertiser. How it got into the news¬ 
papers I know not j Mr. Coleman, I suppose, can give the best 
account of that. 

Cheetham then published a most abusive piece in his paper, 
and in his vulgar style of language said, “ Paine has told a lie” 
and then insinuated as if I had forged the letter. It is by his 
propensity to blackguarding and lying, that he has brought so 
many prosecutions on his back. He says he has nine. He 
will now have one more. If an unprincipled bully cannot be 
reformed, he can be punished. 

Thomas Paine. 

November 20, 1807.” 

“ THE EMISSARY CHEETHAM. 

Cheetham can now be considered in no other light than a 
British emissary, or successor to the impostor Cullen, alias 
Carpenter, whom Cheetham handed out in his newspaper, as a 
gentlemanly sort of a man. Cheetham finding the republicans 
are casting him off, is holding out signs to be employed as a 
British partisan. 

Cheetham, in his papers of December 29 and 30, has two 
long pieces about the embargo, which he labors to. prove is 
not laid on in consequence of any dispute with England, but in 
consequence of some imperious demands on the part of France. 
This John Bull is an idiot in diplomatic affairs. 

Cheetham says, ‘ Mr. Monroe’s despatches, which were laid 
before congress, and which congress concluded did not au¬ 
thorize an embargo , are dated London, October 10th. In the 
opinion of congress,’ continues Cheetham, ‘and I venture to 
say of Mr. Monroe, an immediate war with England was there¬ 
fore by no means probable.’ 

Cheetham has been so long in the habit of giving false in¬ 
formation, that truth is to him like a foreign language. 

The president laid the despatches of Mr. Monroe, of October 
10th, before congress ; but as they were in daily expectation 
of later information by the arrival of the Revenge schooner, 
and also of the personal arrival of Mr. Monroe, congress re¬ 
ceived it as preparatory information, but came to no con¬ 
clusion on their contents. 

Cheetham says, that the Leopard, which brought Mr. Mon¬ 
roe’s despatches, of October 10th, sailed from London on the 
16th of October, and that the Revenge sailed from London for 
Cherbourg, on the same day, at which time, says Cheetham, 
there was no probability of an immediate war with England. 

In a letter I received from London, dated October 15th, and 
which I published in the Philadelphia Aurora, and in the New 
York Public Advertiser, the writer, in speaking of the British 
ministry, says, ‘ Their cup of iniquity is nearly full, they only 


PAINE AND CHEETIIAM* 


173 


want to go to war with America to fill it up; and it is the 
opinion here [London] that that measure is resolved on. They 
will make no concessions unless it be to deceive.’ The letter 
is dated one day before the Revenge sailed from London, and 
I suppose came by the Revenge; yet Cheethnm tells his 
readers there was then no probability of a war with America. 
Cheetham’s information is never entitled to credit. 

When the Revenge sailed with the president’s proclamation, 
and the instructions to Mr. Monroe, the writer of this knows 
she was ordered to come from London to France. It was ex¬ 
pected she would be detained in the two countries about a 
month, and be back here about the 16th of November. 

Her coming from London to France, would give Mr. Monroe 
the opportunity (for foreign ministers do not correspond by 
post, but by express) of communicating to Mr. Armstrong, at 
Paris, the plans and projects of the British ministry. 

Soon after the arrival of the Revenge at Cherbourg, a French 
port on the channel, General Armstrong sent circular letters 
to the American consuls in France, to hasten the departure of 
the American vessels as fast as possible. Several paragraphs 
in the English newspapers, and which have been copied into 
the American papers, stated, that the British ministry intended 
to seize American vessels coming to, or going from, any port 
in France. As Mr. Monroe would get knowledge of this, 
as well as the writer of the letter to Thomas Paine, of October 
15th, he would communicate it to General Armstrong at 
Paris; and this accounts for General Armstrong’s circular 
letter, after the arrival of the Revenge schooner from London. 

If Britain put her threat in force, that of taking American 
vessels going to or coming from France, it is probable the 
French government will retaliate, and take American vessels 
going to or coming from England ; and this resolution on the 
part of France, had a natural tendency to prevent American 
vessels being taken, because Britain, by setting the example, 
will suffer more by it than France. 

The British blockading decree, that of seizing neutral ves¬ 
sels going to or from France, was to have been published on 
the 14th of November, but the news from London of the 14th 
by the Jane, is silent on the subject. The apprehension of 
retaliation has, most probably, stopped the British ministry in 
their career. 

Jan. 7, 1808.” 

In another letter, dated August 25, 1808 (and Mr. Paine 
died, as we have seen, in 1809), he thus expresses himself of 
Cheetham, that “ in religion he was a hypocrite, and in 
politics a John Bull,” said in reference to Cheetham’s abuse 
of Bonaparte and the French. Mr. Paine adds in the same 


174 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


letter: “ The ward meetings have done exceedingly right 
in posting Cheetham. The people in the country and abroad 
will now know that he does not belong to the popular repub¬ 
lican party, and that he is an English impostor.” 

Whether these letters derive some asperity from party pol- 
tics or not, is a matter of no consequence to our subject. 
The statement of facts is no doubt correct, and the feelings 
of Cheetham toward Paine must be anything but friendly. 
When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubtless was, 
disappointed and a renegade, with talents, as he certainly pos¬ 
sessed, but embittered in feelings and regardless of truth, as 
all circumstances contribute to show, what could be expected 
from such a man, but. just what he produced—a life of Paine 
abounding in bold falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and ad¬ 
dressed to a people who wished to be deceived 1 The com¬ 
pliment paid Cheetham by Judge Hoffman, in extenuation of 
heavy damages, when convicted by the clearest evidence of 
gross slander in the case of Madame Bonneville, viz, that 
iX he had produced a work useful to religion,” explains the 
position of Cheetham, his life of Paine, and the public. The 
politicians succumbed to the religious part of the community, 
and both sacrificed the fame of Paine to their supposed inter- 
‘ est. The religious because they thought they did God service, 
and hypocrites and politicians because they imagined an injury 
from the association of the name of Paine with theirs. Indi¬ 
viduals did lift up their voices in defence of the memory of 
Paine, but as these had neither the press nor public sympathy, 
nor public opinion, nor fashion, on their side, their voices 
were not heard, and falsehood triumphed for a time ; not, 
however, without witnesses, whose testimony was recorded 
from time to time, which might be accumulated and presented 
at a proper season, a time to which Joel Barlow looked forward. 
That time we believe has now arrived, and J udge Hoffman, 
were he now alive, dare not repeat his infamous sentiment, 
that “Cheetham had written a book useful to religion.” 
The very sentiment is now scoffed by the religious people ot 
the age, who are so far advanced in civilization as to scorn a 
religion that needs falsehood for its support. In the history 
of nations there are periods of fanaticism, but a steady prog 



MARY HINSDALE S FALSEHOODS 


175 


ress m liberality. Cromwell’s time was a period of fanati¬ 
cism, succeeded indeed by licentiousness; and after the 
French revolution a re-action took place, and fanaticism pre¬ 
vailed, first in England, and then on this side the Atlantic; 
and in the darkness of which Cheetham slipped in his life of 
Paine. But we yet believe that justice will be done to the 
memory of the man who caused the declaration of inde¬ 
pendence, showed how it could be maintained, and was the 
light of the republic in the “times which tried men’s souls,” 
{Paine). And we farther believe that this age is sufficiently 
intelligent to investigate the merits of one of the men of the 
revolution, and sufficiently honest to do his memory justice. 

The second part of Mr. Paine’s prophecy was not suffered 
to want fulfilment. In vain did his friends witness the sin¬ 
cerity of his belief, his firmness and calmness at the last 
moment ; in vain did Dr. Manley try to extort from him a 
recantation, and in vain did clerical gentlemen assail him 
when infirm in body. In vain did Mr. Jarvis, Colonel Daniel 
Pelton, and our living friend Mr. Haskins, and the respected 
Willet Hicks, receive his last declaration in presence ot 
death; in vain was all this. A few zealous pious hypocrites 
had determined on a conversion, or on a conviction and re¬ 
morse, and therefore a woman was made a tool of to propa¬ 
gate such charges ; and one Charles Collins, now alive, was 
found base enough to publish her foolish tales, not avowed 
till some years after the death of Mr. Paine ; such a circum¬ 
stance however is easily jumped over, when that is revealed 
which is wanted. This subject has however been treated on 
in the preface to the Boston edition of Mr. Paine’s theologi¬ 
cal works, written by our friend Mr. John Fellows, now alive, 
and frequently alluded to in this work, from which we shall 
therefore extract, as we have examined into it, and, with one 
exception, are satisfied with the correctness of the statement. 

“I cannot relinquish this subject without taking notice of 
one of the most vile and wicked stories that was ever engen¬ 
dered in the fruitful imagination of depraved mortals. It was 
fabricated by a woman, named Mary Hinsdale, and published 
by one Charles Collins, at New York, or rather, it is probable 
that this work was the joint production of Collins, and some 


176 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


other fanatics, and that they induced this stupid, ignorant 
woman to stand sponsor for it. 

It states, in substance, that Thomas Paine, in his last ill¬ 
ness, was in the most pitiable condition for want of the mere 
necessaries of life ; and that the neighbors, out of sheer com¬ 
passion, contributed their aid to supply him with sustenance : 
that he had become converted to Christianity, and lamented 
that all his religious works had not been burnt: that Mrs. 
Bonneville was in the utmost distress for having abandoned 
her religion, as she (M. H.) said, for that of Mr. Paine, which 
he now told her would not answer the purpose, &c. In all 
this rodomontade there is not a single, solitary ray of truth to 
give it a colorable pretext. It is humiliating to be under the 
necessity of exposing such contemptible nonsense. Collins, 
if he was not the author, was assured of its falsity. But being 
full of the spirit of fanaticism and intolerance, and believing, 
no doubt, that the end sanctified the means, he continued to 
circulate the pious fraud , and the clergy exultingly retailed it 
from the pulpit. Nothing but religious phrensy could have in¬ 
duced Collins, after being warned of the crime he was com¬ 
mitting, to persist in publishing this abominable trash.* He had 
the hardihood even to apply to William Cobbett for the purpose 
of inducing him to insert it in the life of Thomas Paine, which 
Mr. Cobbett then contemplated to write. For which he re¬ 
ceived due chastisement from the pen of that distinguished 
writer, in a number of his Register. Mr. Cobbett subse¬ 
quently having taken great pains to investigate the falsity of 
this story, exposed and refuted it in the most ample manner 
This I have not seen, nor is the Register, containing the article 
alluded to, before me. Mrs. Bonneville was absent in France 
at the time of its first appearance in New York, and when 
shown to her on her return to America, although her feelings 
were highly agitated at the baseness of the fabrication, she 
would not permit her name to appear in print in competition 
with that of Mary Hinsdale. No notice, therefore, has been taken 
of it, excepting by Mr. Cobbett. Indeed, it was considered by 
the friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to 
controvert. But as many pious people continue to believe, 
or pretend to believe in this stupid story, it was thought 
proper to say a few words upon it in this publication. 

The facts are as follow : Mary Hinsdale was hired at service 
in the family of Mr. Wiliet Hicks, residing at Greenwich 

* Since writing the above, it has been suggested to me, by a gentleman who 
knows him, that this base act of Collins is attributable more to his actual stupid¬ 
ity than to either his fanaticism or malice. That he is too weak to be aware of 
the sin of slander; and has no doubt, in this case, been made use of, as a mere 
puppet, by others behind the scene, more knowing and more wicked than him¬ 
self If this be the fact, it is charity to state it to the public, as his case will tend 
to excite pity, and depreciate, in some measure the enormity of his guilt in this 
transaction. 




177 


STATEMENT OF NIXON AND FELTON. 

village, in the neighborhood of Mr. Paine, who occasionally- 
sent some little delicacies to him in the time of his sickness, 
as every good neighbor would do ; and this woman was the 
bearer. Here is the whole foundation upon which the dis¬ 
torted imagination of Mary Hinsdale, or some one for her, has 
raised this diabolical fiction. Mr. Hicks was in the habit ot 
seeing Mr. Paine frequently, and must have known if such a 
wonderful revolution had taken place in his mind, as is stated,, 
and he does not hesitate to say, that the whole account is a 
pious fraud. Mr. Hicks is a respectable merchant at New 
York, and any one there, who has any doubts on the subject, 
by calling on him will be satisfied. Even James Cheetham, 
the libeller of Mr. Paine, acknowledges that he died in the re¬ 
ligious faith which he had inculcated in his writings. Which 
is also attested by his physician, Dr. Manley, and all those 
who visited him in his last illness. But to put this matter 
beyond all cavil, I shall add the certificate of two old and 
highly respectable citizens, Thomas Nixon of New York, and 
Captain Daniel Pelton of New Rochelle. It was addressed to 
William Cobbett, under an expectation that he was about to 
write the life of Thomas Paine, and left with a friend to be 
handed to him ; but as the undertaking was relinquished, it 
was never delivered, and is now in my possession, in the hand 
writing of the signers; and is as follows :— 

TO MR. WILLIAM COBBETT. 

Sir : Having been informed that you have a design to write 
a history of the life and writings of Thomas Paine, if you 
have been furnished with materials in respect to his religious 
opinions, or rather of his recantation of his former opinions 
before his death, all you have heard of his recanting is false. 
Being aware that such reports would be raised after hi’s death 
by fanatics which infested his house at the time it was ex¬ 
pected he would die, we, the subscribers, intimate acquaint¬ 
ances of Thomas Paine, since the year 1776, went to his 
house—he was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in the full 
vigor and use of ail his mental faculties. We interrogated 
him on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind 
or repented of anything he had said or wrote on that subject 
He answered, ‘ not at all,’ and appeared rather offended at our 
supposition that any change should take place in his mind. 
We took down in writing the questions put to him, and his 
answers thereto, before a number of persons then in his room, 
among whom were his doctor, Mrs. Bonneville, &c. This 
paper is mislaid and cannot be found at present, but the above 
is the substance, which can be attested by many living wit¬ 
nesses. Thomas Nixon. 

Daniel Felton 


<23 


New York April 24, ISIS.” 


178 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


We had resolved on so much of the manuscript before we 
saw Mr. Willet Hicks, before mentioned ; and if it were not 
a rule in evidence to obtain the best , in the most direct manner, 
we should not have sought an interview, for we had supposed 
that those who had gone before us had obtained all that was 
desirable from that gentleman; but, to our surprise, on seeing 
Mr. Hicks, as a duty which we owed the public, we learned 
that Mary Hinsdale never saw Paine to Mr. Hicks’s knowledge ; 
that the fact of his sending some delicacy from his table as a 
compliment occurred but a very few times, and that he always 
commissioned his daughters on this errand of kindness, and 
he designated Mrs. Cheeseman, then a little girl, but now the 
wife of one of our celebrated physicians, as the daughter 
especially engaged, and that she states that Mary Hinsdale 
once wished to go with her, but was refused. So that on the 
testimony of Mr. Willet Hicks, the whole story of confession 
of Paine to such a woman, remorse, wretchedness, despair, 
and conversion, rests on Mary Hinsdale once wishing to go 
with Mr. Hicks’s daughter to Mr. Paine’s. The secret of such 
a fabrication on such a foundation is easily explained. On 
farther conversation with Mr. Hicks, he informed us, that 
when it was known that he visited Mr. Paine daily, many, of 
the friends (to which sect he belonged, and of which he was 
a preacher), thought he would make some religious impres¬ 
sion on Mr. Paine, and that after his death he was extremely 
annoyed at numbers of them pressing him to say something 
detrimental of Paine, or that he was converted. The old 
gentleman remarked to us: “ You can have no idea of the 
anxiety of our people on this subject; I was beset by them, both 
here and in England, where I soon after went on a journey.” 
He remarked, they wished to convict Mr. Paine of calling on 
Jesus ; they would say, he observed, “ Didst thee never hear 
hear him call on Christ 1” On reference to our notes, which 
we took for accuracy, we find, Mr. Hicks even declared : “ You 
cannot conceive what a deal of trouble I had, and as for money, 
I could have had any sums if I would have said anything 
against Thomas Paine, or if I would even have consented to 
remain silent. They informed me that the doctor was willing 
to say something that would satisfy them if I would engage to 


WILLET HICKS’ STATEMENT. 


179 


be silent only; but,” remarked Mr. Hicks to us, “ they observed, 
he (the doctor) knows the standing of Willet Hicks, and 
that he knew all about Paine, and if he (Mr. Hicks) should 
contradict what I say, he would destroy my testimony.” 
Such is the simple testimony recently obtained of this gentle¬ 
man, who is yet alive, and was, when we saw him, at the resi 
dence of his son-in-law, Dr. Cheeseman. Mr. Hicks, in con¬ 
clusion, remarked of Mr. Paine, that “ he was a good man, an 
honest man,” and with great indignation he remarked, “ he 
was not a man to talk with Mary Hinsdale.” Here then is the 
key to Mary Hinsdale’s fabrication ; the intense feeling of a 
portion of the friends on the subject of Mr. Paine's works. 
We say a portion ; for, though Mr. Hicks uses the expression, 
“ he was beset with them, both here and in England,” a por¬ 
tion could beset him. Mr. Hicks was himself a friend, a pious 
friend, and a preacher, and an honorable man of high stand¬ 
ing, and such as he was and is, such we have no doubt were 
and are many. Besides, we can readily conceive that this 
intense feeling was chiefly among the more orthodox, as some 
of these in every sect have always felt the most. From the 
multitude who raised the cry of Tom Paine, we need not mi¬ 
nutely examine the question as to numbers in this portion of 
the friends; we can readily believe there would be enough to 
effect the object. If, too, Mr. Hicks, who was rich, could 
have had any sum , as he expresses himself, then Mary Hins¬ 
dale could have had any sum for her invention. We do not 
know that she did ; but we can readily believe that she would 
not want a Charles Collins, or any one else, to assist her in 
getting out such a work ; and that those who wished to be¬ 
lieve would not be at much trouble to inquire after the credi¬ 
bility of the evidence. Will our readers now turn to page 156, 
where we have inserted Mr. Amasa Woodsworth’s testimony, 
and observe in what language he speaks of Dr. Manley, yet 
alive, and enjoying a post of honor. Now we do not know 
that Mr. Hicks referred to Dr. Manley, when he says that the 
friends informed him the doctor was willing to say something , 
he might have meant some other doctor ; we merely give his 
words as he gave them to us. But there is a curious coinci 
dence in these two witnesses, both respectable, but who have 


180 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


moved in 'very different spheres, and who, perhaps, have never 
seen each other since the death of Paine. Their evidence 
was taken, the one near Boston, two years ago, the other two 
months ago, in New York, and they both infer a disposition to 
cheat the public by those who were professionally about Mr. 
Paine on his death-bed. Dr. Manley has published a letter, 
and has thus thrown himself on the public, and we have a 
right to examine that letter. He there, indeed, gives you the 
last words of Paine, “I have no wish to believe on that sub 
ject.” But what would he have said had Willet Hicks 
consented to silence, and if Amasa Woodsworth had not been 
present. We again remark that we do not know that Mr 
Hicks referred to Dr. Manley, but we do know that Dr. Man 
ley published a pamphlet, in which he endeavors to insinuate, 
that in spite of Mr. Paine’s declaration, that he did conceal his 
real sentiments; and this he infers from looks and exclama¬ 
tions which he alone saw and heard. And now let us remind 
our readers that Amasa Woodsworth says, he was always 
there with Dr. Manley; yet Amasa Woodsworth saw none of 
these expression, and heard no exclamations indicating mental 
agony, but such expressions as resulted from bodily pain, and 
that from a cause explicitly given, viz, “ the skin in some 
parts being removed from long lying.” The judge, Hoffman, 
who tried Cheetham on the libel against Madame Bonneville, 
complimented Mr. Cheetham for writing a very useful book in 
favor of religion , although it did contain falsehoods and libel ; 
and in the same way the doctor may think his published letter 
may be useful to hundreds of thousands, and he no doubt did, 
and perhaps does think so ; and no aoubt some persons will 
regret that Mr. Willet Hicks stood in the way of some more 
dignified person than Mary Hinsdale, belying Mr. Paine on his 
death-bed. The whole, however, is explained by the “ intense 
feelings of a portion of the friends, who could beset Mr. Hicks 
in the manner they did, ‘Didst thee never hear him call on 
Christ V ” or who could intimate a wish that he would say 
that Paine recanted, or, at least, that he would promise silence , 
while others should testify falsely ; and who could intimate 
reward for such perfidy. “ As for money I could have had 
any sum,” is the language of Mr. Hicks toward the portion 


cobbett’s statement. 


181 


of “friends” that beset him Now if this feeling could exist 
among the friends, carried out as we have seen it in the case 
of Mary Hinsdale, to what extent must it have existed in other 
classes, more superstitious, less educated, less accustomed to 
truth and more to passion, as the devoutly pious among every 
class, who believe their feelings the effects of divine influ 
ence, and who are consequently easily misled by these feel 
mgs. And when we consider that all this pious feeling was 
backed by an interested class of clergy, and by corrupt poli¬ 
ticians, who wished the votes of the pious, can we be surprised 
at the calumny under which he has lain, and that even his 
friends should have been deceived on some points, from the 
incessant clamor and apparent universality of the accusations. 

We shall now furnish Mr. W. Cobbett’s account of this 
transaction of Mr. Collins and Mary Hinsdale, on which, per 
haps, we have thrown some light:— 

“ CURIOUS HISTORY OF A CALUMNY ON PAINE. 

It is a part of the business of a press, sold to the cause of 
corruption , to calumniate those, dead or alive, who have most 
effectually labored against that cause; and, as Paine was the 
most powerful and effectual of those laborers, so to calumni¬ 
ate him has been an object of their peculiar attention and care. 
Among other things said against this famous man, is, that he 
recanted before he died ; and that in his last illness, he discov¬ 
ered horrible fears of death. This is, to be sure, a very good 
answer to what these same persons say about his hardened in¬ 
fidelity. But, it is a pure, unadulterated falsehood. This 
falsehood, which I shall presently trace to its origin (the heart 
of a profound hypocrite ), was cried about the streets of Liver- 
vool , when I landed there in November last. Thence it found 
its way to the grand receptacle and distributor of falsehood 
and calumny, the London press^ which has sent it all over this 
kingdom. One country paper , however, pre-eminent in all 
that is foul and mean , affects to possess original matter and 
authentic information on the subject; and, indeed, it pledges 
itself for the character of the gentleman from whom it says it 
has received the pretended authentic account. The country 
paper I allude to, is the Norwich Mercury, printed and pub¬ 
lished by one Burks. 

The Norwich Mercury did not imagine that any one would 
take the pains to expose this tissue of falsehoods. In the first 

f ilace, why does he not name his ‘ gentleman' of such excel- 
ent character 1 How these informers skulk ! Mr. Burks can 


182 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


■pledge himself for the character of the “gentleman” informer; 
but, where are we to get a pledge for the character of Mr. 
Burks, who, if we are to judge from this act of his, stands in 
need of very good sponsors. 

Let us look, a little, at the internal evidence of the falsehood 
of this story. Mr. Paine possessed, at his death, an unen¬ 
cumbered estate of two hundred and fifty acres of land, not 
more than twenty miles from New York. He possessed a con¬ 
siderable sum beside. These he left by will. Will any one 
believe, that he was, on his dying-bed, in the want of proper 
nourishment , and that he was in a deplorable state as to apart¬ 
ments and necessaries'? Then, was it likely, that when a 
neighbor's maid-servant went to carry him a little present of 
sweetmeats, or the like, that he would begin a conversation on 
theology with her ? And is it not monstrous to suppose, that 
he would call himself the devil's agent to her, and not leave 
behind him any recantation at all, though he had such ample 
time for doing it, and though this confidant was so ready to 
receive it and to take care of it ? The story is false upon the 
face of it: and nothing but a simpleton, or something a great 
deal worse, would have given it circulation and affected to 
believe it to be true. 

I happen to know the origin of this story : and I possess 
the real, original document, whence have proceeded the divers 
editions of the falsehood, of the very invention of which I was, 
perhaps, myself , the innocent cause ! 

About two years ago, I, being then on Long Island, pul Uvhed 
my intention of writing an account of the life, labors and 
death of Paine. Soon after this, a quaker at New York, o'me l 
Charles Collins , made many applications for an interview v/itk 
me, which at last he obtained. I found that his object tv 
persuade me that Paine had recanted. I laughed at him am 
sent him away. But he returned again and again to tht 
charge. He wanted me to promise that I would say th&v * i> 
was said,' that Paine had recanted. ‘ No,’ said I; ‘but 1 wilf 
say that you say it, and that you tell a lie, unless yon provt 
the truth of what you say ; and if you do that, I shall gladly 
insert the fact.’ This posed ‘ friend Charley,’ whom I suspected 
to be a most consummate hypocrite. He had a sodden face, 
a simper, and manoeuvred his features, precisely like the most 
perfidious wretch that I have known, or ever read or heard of. 
He was precisely the reverse of my honest, open, and sincere 
quaker friends, the Pauls of Pennsylvania. Friend Charley 
plied me with remonstrances and reasonings, but I always an¬ 
swered him. ‘ Give me proof; name j oersons ; state times ; 
state precise words, or I denounce you as a ‘ liar' Thus put 
to his trumps, friend Charley resorted to the aid of a person 
of his own stamp ; and, at last, he brought me a paper, con¬ 
taining matter, of which the above statement of Mr. Burks is 


cobbett’s statement. 


183 


a garbled edition ! This paper, very cautiously and craftily 
drawn up, contained only the initials of names. This would 
not do. I made him, at last, put down the full name and the 
address of the informer , ‘Mary Hinsdale, No. 10 Anthony street, 
New York.’ I got this from friend Charley some time about 
June last; and had no opportunity of visiting the party till 
late in October, just before I sailed. 

The informer was a quaker woman, who, at the time of Mr. 
Paine’s last illness, was a servant in the family of Mr. Willct 
Hicks, an eminent merchant, a man of excellent character, a 
quaker, and even, I believe, a quaker preacher. Mr. Hicks, a 
kind and liberal and rich man, visited Mr. Paine in his illness, 
and, from his house, which was near that of Mr. Paine, little 
nice things (as is the practice in America) were sometimes 
sent to him ; of which this servant, friend Mary, was the 
bearer ; and this was the way in which the lying cant got into 
the room of Mr. Paine. 

To ‘friend Mary,’ therefore, I went on the twenty-sixth of 
October last, with friend Charley’s paper in my pocket. 1 
found her in a lodging in a back-room up one pair of stairs. 
I knew that I had no common cunning to set my wit against. 
I began with all the art that I was master of. I had got a pro¬ 
digiously broad-brimmed hat on. I patted a little child that 
she had sitting beside her; I called her friend ; and played 
all the awkward tricks of an undisciplined wheedler. But I 
was compelled to come quickly to business. She asked, 
‘ What’s thy name, friend V and the moment I said William 
Cobbett, up went her mouth as tight as a purse! Sack-making 
appeared to be her occupation; and that I might not extract 
through her eyes that which she was resolved I should not get 
out of her mouth, she went and took up a sack and began to 
sew ; and not another look or glance could I get from her. 

However, I took out my paper, read it, and stopping at sev¬ 
eral points, asked her if it was true. Talk of the Jesuits , in¬ 
deed ! The whole tribe of Loyola, who had shaken so many 
kingdoms to their base, never possessed a millionth part of 
the cunning of this drab-colored little woman, whose face 
simplicity and innocence seemed to have chosen as the place 
of their triumph ! She shuffled; she evaded ; she equivocated ; 
6he warded off; she affected not to understand me, not to 
understand the paper, not to remember: and all this with so 
much seeming simplicity and single-heartedness, and in a voice 
so mild, so soft, and so sweet, that if the devil had been sitting 
where I was, he would certainly have jumped up and hugged 
her to his bosom. 

The result was: that it was so long ago , that she could not 
speak positively to any part of the matter : that she would not 
say that any part of the paper was true: that she had never 
seen the paper ; and that she had never given ‘ friend Charley’ 


.34 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


(for so she called him) authority to say anything about the 
matter in her name. I pushed her closely upon the subject of 
the 4 unhappy French female.'' Asked her whether she should 
know her again.— 4 Oh, no! friend ; I tell thee that I have no 
recollection of any person or thing that I saw at Thomas 
Paine’s house.’ The truth is, that the cunning little thing 
knew that the French lady was at hand ; and that detection 
was easy, if she had said that she should know her upon 
sight! 

I had now nothing to do but to bring friend Charley’s nose 
to the grindstone. But Charley, who is a grocer, living in 
Cherry street, near Pearl street, though so pious a man, and 
doubtless in great haste to get to everlasting bliss, had moved 
ovt of the city for fear of the fever, not liking, apparently, to go 
ofl’to the next world in a yellow skin. And thus he escaped 
me, who sailed from New York in four days afterward : or 
Charley should have found, that there was something else on 
this side the grave, pretty nearly as troublesome and as dread¬ 
ful as the yellow fever. 

This is, I think, a pretty good instance of the length to 
which hypocrisy will go. The whole, as far as relates to re¬ 
cantation, and to the 4 unhappy French female,"' is a lie from the 
beginning to the end. Mr. Paine declares in his last will, that 
he retains all his publicly expressed opinions as to religion. 
His executors, and many other gentlemen of undoubted 
veracity, had the same declaration from his dying lips. Mr. 
Willet Hicks visited him till nearly the last. This gentleman 
says, that there was no change of opinion intimated to him : 
and will any man believe that Paine would have withheld from 
Mr. Hicks, that which he was so forward to communicate to 
Mr. Hicks’ servant-girl ? 

Observe, reader, that in this tissue of falsehoods, is included 
a most foul and venomous slander on a woman of virtue and 
of spotless honor. But hypocrites will stick at nothing 
Calumny is their weapon, and a base press is the hand to wield 
it. Mr. Bourke, of Norwich, will not insert this article, nor 
will he acknowledge his error. He knows that the calumny 
which he has circulated, has done what he intended it to do , 
and he and the 4 gentleman ’ for whose character he pledges 
himself, will wholly disregard good men’s contempt, so long 
as it does not diminish their gains. 

This is not at all a question of religion. It is a question of 
moral truth. Whether Mr. Paine’s opinions were correct or 
erroneous, has nothing to do with this matter. 

William Cobbett 

We have not yet done with this subjeci. By a curious 
coincidence we have become acquainted with a Mr. J. W. 


MARY HINSDALE AND C. COLLINS. 


185 

Lockwood, of New York. This gentleman had a sister, a mem¬ 
ber of the friends, who died about two-and-twenty years ago. 
On her death, Mary Hinsdale, who was known to the family, 
stated to them that she should come to the funeral, for that 
she had met Mary Lockwood a short time before her death; 
and that she (Mary Lockwood) had said to her : “ Mary[ Hins¬ 
dale], I do not expect to live long ; my views are changed ; I 
wish thee to come to my funeral, and make this declaration to 
my friends then assembled,” and that consequently she should 
come. The relatives of the deceased, who were Hicksite* 
quakers , or friends, knew the falseness of this statement. 
Those who had sat by her bed-side, and heard her continued 
and last declarations on religious subjects (for she was em¬ 
phatically a religious young woman), knew that no change 
had taken place. Her brother, our informant, had heard her 
express her opinions with great satisfaction. He and her other 
relatives therefore said so to Mary Hinsdale, but invited her 
to attend the funeral. Mary Hinsdale did not attend. The 
falsehood was notorious and occasioned a good deal of loud 
conversation; and this Mr. Lockwood supposes deterred this 
orthodox friend from appearing among them. 

We recently published the above account in the Beacon, 
and referred to Mr. Cobbett’s account, which we had formerly 
published. On this publication Mr. Collins, frequently named 
above, called on us, not to complain of our remarks, but to 
assure us that his conscience could not suffer the Beacon to be 
left at his house, to be forwarded to a friend in the West 
Indies, as formerly. To this we made no objection ; but find¬ 
ing Mr. C. Collins in our house, and knowing the importance 
of his testimony, we at once asked him what induced him to 
publish the account of Mary Hinsdale. He assured us he 
then thought it true. He believed that she had seen Mr. 
Paine, and that Mr. Paine might confess to her, a girl, when 
he would not to Willet Hicks. He knew that many of their 
most respected friends did not believe the account. He 
knew that Mr. W. Hicks did not, whom he highly respected ; but 

* Followers of Elias Hicks, not. orthodox, or believers in the common scheme 
of salvation by the atonement. 


24 


186 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


yet he thought it might be true. We asked Mr. C. Collins 
what he thought of the character of Mary Hinsdale now'! He 
replied, that some of our friends believe she indulges in opi¬ 
ates, and do not give her credit for truth. We asked, and do 
you believe they are justified in theiropinions ! He replied, “0 
yes, I believe they speak the truth” (Mr. Lockwood had given 
us the same opinion), but C., added “This does not affect her 
testimony when a young woman ; she might then have spoken 
the truth.” Such is the testimony of Charles Collins, in relation 
to Mary Hinsdale, whom he assisted in publishing her fabrica¬ 
tion of Mr. Paine’s death-bed scenes, based on her wish to see 
Mr. Paine, and which fabrication has been echoed from pulpit to 
pulpit, and from press to press, in this country and England, 
and sanctioned by thousands of pious people who wished the 
account true. 

There is one more subject to which our attention has been 
drawn, and to which Cheetham refers, Mr. Paine’s alleged in¬ 
gratitude to Mr. Monroe. We have seen in the body of this 
work that Mr. Monroe took upon himself to declare Mr. Paine 
a citizen of the United States, and t6 presume that Washing¬ 
ton, then president, must feel an interest in him. It is evident 
that Mr. Monroe did all he could in the absence of direct in¬ 
structions from his government about Mr. Paine, which he 
does not appear to have possessed. And we have seen, 
when Mr. Paine finally left the prison, that he went by invita¬ 
tion to Mr. Monroe’s house, and that he remained there above 
a year. We hear nothing of any engagement, and we cannot 
conceive that Mr. Monroe,as plenipotentiary at Paris,would take 
boarders, or that Mr. Paine would stay at his house uninvited, 
or one moment beyond an apparent welcome. Mr. Paine’s 
company before, and at this time, was sought by many as an 
honor. He afterward resided with Mr. Bonneville, either 
with or without an engagement for board ; but in that case 
we know, when Bonneville was ruined by Bonaparte, for pub¬ 
lishing a republican paper, that Mr. Paine, finding on his 
return here the means of hospitality, generously invited the 
whole family to share his comforts. We cannot, therefore, 
perceive in Mr. Paine a natural ingratitude. Cheetham states, 
and others have repeated it, that Mr. Monroe afterward be- 


MR- MONROE. 


187 


came poor, and applied to Mr. Paine, whom he said was then 
rich, to pay for his board , while residing with the consul at 
Paris, and that Mr. Paine took no notice of the demand, and 
was therefore ungrateful. If this really occurred, and we 
think it likely, all we can sayjs that Mr. Monroe at this period 
must have become penurious. He was at that time looking 
forward to the presidency, which he afterward obtained ; and 
if, while in this situation, he made a demand as a hoarding- 
house keeper, while acting as minister in France, and that to a 
distinguished individual whom he had invited to his house, 
and with whom he had made no such engagement, for none is 
even pretended, he must have forgotten the dignity of an Amer¬ 
ican consul in France, as well as a presumptive successor to the 
presidency. We are perfectly aware that men, when they be¬ 
come old, frequently become parsimonious ; Mr. Paine did, in 
part; and that others, who are both just and generous, on partic¬ 
ular occasions, are constitutionally parsimonious. This was the 
case with Franklin. We have therefore made some inquiry as 
to Mr. Monroe, and we find that he was not unmindful of his 
interest. While acting as minister at Paris, Mr. Jefferson, then 
president, gave him a commission to transact some business in a 
neighboring country, intending an appropriation to Mr. Monroe 
for this service, but to save to the country the outfit of an 
especial minister or consul, which we believe is about nine 
thousand dollars. This outfit Mr. Monroe, we find, afterward 
claimed and recovered, and hence we think it possible that 
he might have made the charge upon Mr. Paine before stated \ 
but unless Mr. Paine had agreed to such a charge, which does 
not appear from Mr. Monroe’s alleged letter, we think the 
affair rather to the discredit of the latter than to Mr. Paine ; 
and if Mr. Paine treated the subject in the manner alleged, he 
probably considered as we do, that the demand never ought 
to have been made. 

We shall now conclude with the will of Mr. Paine. This 
falsifies at once, one part of Mary Hinsdale’s relation, viz, 
Mr. Paine’s poverty; and one part being shown to be false we 
can have no belief in the rest, which depends on the same 
authority. The fact is, she is now living, and is known as a 
silly lying woman, disgraced in the eyes of some ofherformei 
religious connexions for this very crime. 


188 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


THE WILL OF MR. THOMAS PAINE. 

4 The People of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, Free 

and Independent, to all to whom these presents shall come or 

may concern, Send Greeting: 

Know ye. That the annexed is a true copy of the will of 
Thomas Paine, deceased, as recorded in the office of our sur¬ 
rogate, in and for the city and county of New York. In tes¬ 
timony whereof, we have caused the seal of office of our said 
surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Silvanus Miller, 
Esq., surrogate of said county, at the city of New York, the 
twelfth day of July, in th^e year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and nine, and of our Independence the thirty-fourth. 

Silvanus Miller. 

The last will and testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas 
Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator God, and in no 
other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other, 
I Thomas Paine, of the state of New York, author of the work 
entitled ‘ Common Sense,’ written in Philadelphia, in 1775, 
and published in that city the beginning of January, 1776, 
which awaked America to a Declaration of Independence, 
on the fourth of July following, which was as fast as the work 
could spread through such an extensive country; author also 
of the several numbers of the ‘ American Crisis’ ‘ thirteen in 
all,’ published occasionally during the progress of the revolu¬ 
tionary war—the last is on the peace; author also of the 
‘ Rights of Man,’ parts the first and second, written and pub¬ 
lished in London, in 1791 and ’92 ; author also of a work on 
religion, 4 Age of Reason,’ parts the first and second. 4 N. B. 
I have a third part by me in manuscript and an answer to the 
Bishop of Landaff;’ author also of a work, lately published, 
entitled 4 Examination of the passages in the New Testament 
quoted from the Old, and called prophesies concerning Jesus 
Christ,’ and showing there are no prophecies of any such per¬ 
son ; author also of several other works not here enumerated, 

‘ Dissertations on the first Principles of Government,’—‘De¬ 
cline and Fall of the English System of Finance’— 4 Agrarian 
Justice,’ &c., &c., make this my last will and testament, that 
is to say: I give and bequeath to my executors hereinafter 
appointed, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, thirty 
shares I hold in the New York Phoenix Insurance Company, 
which cost me 1470 dollars, they are worth now upward of 
1500 dollars, and all my moveable effects, and also the monev 
that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the time of mv 
decease, paying thereout the expenses of my funeral, in trust 
as to the said shares, moveables, and money, for Margaret 


WILL OF MR. PAINE. 


18 !» 


Brazier Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonneville, of Paris, for 
her own sole and separate use, and at her own disposal, not¬ 
withstanding her coverture. As to my farm in New Rochelle, 
I give, devise, and bequeath the same to my said executors, 
Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, and to the survivor 
of them, his heirs and assigns for ever, in trust, nevertheless, 
to sell and dispose of the north side thereof, now in the occu¬ 
pation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at the west end of the 

orchard and running in a line with the land sold to -Coles, 

to the end of the farm, and to apply the money arising from 
such sale as hereinafter directed. I give to my friends Walter 
Morton, of the New York Phoenix Insurance company, and 
Thomas Addis Emmet, counsellor-at-law, late of Ireland, two 
hundred dollars each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. Palmer, 
widow ofElihu Palmer, late of New York, to be paid out of 
the money arising from said sale, and I give the remainder of 
the money arising from that sale, one half thereof to Clio 
Rickman, of High or Upper Mary-la-bone street, London, and 
the other half to Nicholas Bonneville, of Paris, husband of 
Margaret B. Bonneville aforesaid: and as to the south part of 
the said farm, containing upward of one hundred acres, in 
trust, to rent out the same or otherwise put it to profit, as 
shall be found most advisable, and to pay the rents and 
profits thereof to the said Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for 
her children, Benjamin Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, 
their education and maintenance, until they come to the age 
of twenty-one years, in order that she may bring them well 
up, give them good and useful learning, and instruct them in 
their duty to God, and the practice of morality, the rent of 
the land or the interest of the money for which it may be sold, 
as hereinafter mentioned, to be employed in their education. 
And after the youngest of the said children shall have arrived 
at the age of twenty-one years, in further trust to convey the 
same to the said children share and share alike in fee simple. 
But if it shall be thought advisable by my executors and ex¬ 
ecutrix, or the survivor or survivors of them, at any time 
before the youngest of the said children shall come of age, to 
sell and dispose of the said south side of the said farm, in that 
case I hereby authorize and empower my said executors to 
sell and dispose of the same, and I direct that the money 
arising from such sale be put into stock, either in the United 
States bank stock or New York Phoenix Insurance company 
stock, the interest or dividends thereof to be applied as is al¬ 
ready directed, for the education and maintenance of the said 
children ; and the principal to be transferred to the said 
children or the survivor of them on his or their coming of 
age. I know not if the society of people called quakers ad¬ 
mit a person to be buried in their burying-ground, who does 
not belong to their society, but if they do or will admit me, I 



190 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 


would prefer being buried there, my father belonged to that 
profession, and I was partly brought up in it. But if it is not 
consistent with their rules to do this, I desire to be buried on 
my farm at New Rochelle. The place where I am to be bu 
ried to be a square of twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of 
trees, and a stone or post and railed fence, with a head-stone 
with my name and age engraved upon it, author of ‘ Common 
Sense I nominate, constitute, and appoint, Walter Morton, 
of the New York Phoenix Insurance company, and Thomas 
Addis Emmet, counsellor-at-law, late of Ireland, and Margaret 
B. Bonneville, executors and executrix to this my last will and 
testament, requesting them the said Walter Morton and Thomas 
Addis Emmet, that they will give what assistance they con¬ 
veniently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the children be 
well brought up. Thus placing confidence in their friendship, 
I herewith take my final leave of them and of the world. 1 
have lived an honest and useful life to mankind ; my time has 
been spent in doing good ; and I die in perfect composure and 
resignation to the will of my Creator God. Dated this eigh¬ 
teenth day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred 
and nine, and I have also signed my name to the other sheet 
of this will in testimony of its being a part thereof. 

Thomas Paine, (l. s.) 

Signed, sealed, published and declared by the testator, in 
our presence, who, at his request, and in the presence of each 
other, have set our names as witnesses thereto, the words ‘ pub¬ 
lished and declared’ first interlined. 

William Keese, 

James Angevine, 
Cornelius Ryder.” 

MONUMENT TO THOMAS PAINE. 

On the fourth of July, 1837, we visited the tomb, or place 
of burial, of Thomas Paine, near New Rochelle, and in the 
Beacon of July 15, 1837, thus described it (see Beacon, 
Vol. I. page 331):—* 


“ The tomb is close by the road side, but over a stone fence, 
and now consists of a low, broken, rough, dry stone wall, of 
oblong shape, of about eight by four feet, with loose stones, 
grass, and earth, in the centre ; the upright slab, simply mark¬ 
ed with 

‘ THOMAS PAINE, AUTHOR OF COMMON SENSE,’ 

no longer exists. After Cobbett violated the grave, and re- 


MONUMENT TO PAINE. 


P\ 

moved the bones from the remains of Mr. Paine, the headstone 
was broken, and pieces successively removed by different vis¬ 
iters : one large fragment was preserved by a lady in an op¬ 
posite cottage, in which Mr. Paine had sometimes boarded, 
and in which Mr. and Madame Bonneville afterward boarded; 
but this fragment gradually suffered diminution, as successive 
visiters begged a piece of what they could no longer steal. 
To preserve the last remnant, this lady has had it plastered up 
in a wall. 

We discovered that the lady mentioned, the nearest 
neighbor to the tomb, would be favorable to the repair of 
the tomb, and we learned that she believed that such repairs 
would be popular among the neighbors ; and on this under¬ 
standing, in which we have not been deceived, we determined 
to commence a subscription to repair the tomb, or put up a 
monument; and before we left the village we obtained from 
Mr. James, who had then marble saw-mills in New Rochelle, 
a promise to be at the expense of putting up a heavy block of 
marble, instead of a head-stone, if purchased by subscription; 
subsequently Mr. Frazee, an eminent architect, offered in con¬ 
junction with some friends to give the work on a monument, 
if the materials were procured, and other expenses paid. This 
has now been accomplished, and paid for. The monument 
stands on the Paine farm, at the head of the grave, on twenty 
feet square, enclosed by a substantial wall on three sides, and 
an iron railing in front (not yet up, March 1841). It is built 
of the marble of the country, and is valued at about thirteen 
hundred dollars. The accompanying cut is a faint represent¬ 
ation, and the following extract from a letter from the archi¬ 
tect will best describe the monument and the feelings of the 
neighborhood, which is two miles from the village of New 
Rochelle.”—G. V. 


“New York, Nov. 12 , 1839 * 

To Mr. Yale : 

Will you please to inform our friends that the monument 
to Thomas Paine is erected 1 On Friday last I took with me 
a rigger and went up to the quarries, and on that day we got 
the marble to the spot with the machinery and other apparatus 
necessary to the work.—At an early hour on Saturday morn¬ 
ing, we mustered all hands at the grave, and commenced the 
erection of the monument in good earnest, and in good spirits. 
Everything worked well, and at three o’clock, P. M., the crown 
piece was on, and the erection complete.—No person was 
hurt, nor any part of the work broken or injured.—The peo¬ 
ple up there say it is a chaste and beautiful structure. Its 
purely Grecian character and simplicity of form, render its 
general effect truly impressive and interesting.—'I he summit 
is twelve and a half feet above the level of the road at that 
point. 


192 


LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 



Paine’s monument. 

I was much pleased to find that among the number of fifty 
persons and more, that were assembled to witness our labors, 
not an unkind look was seen, nor an unfriendly expression 
heard, during the time. All looked and spake as though their 
hearts were glad at seeing- such marked regard— such noble 
and lasting honor paid to the great patriot of our revolution 
and the defender of the rights of man. 

I have a little trimming to do yet on the head, which will 
occupy me the best part of a day ; this I will endeavor to ac 
complish this week when the monument will be completed. 

Very truly yours, 

JOHN FRAZEE.” 


Note.— The manuscript of the life of Mr. Paine, for want of surplus funds, lay 
by us for four years, and in the interim some changes have necessarily taken 
place, which we believe we have noticed in the body of the work ; but aware of 
this delay (not unfavorable to accuracy) and willing to secure the living testi¬ 
mony then in being, and wnich, from the age of some of the parties, was of un¬ 
certain tenure, we published in the Beacon from time to time, such evidences as 
we procured, with all the circumstances, and thus secured, while living, the sanc> 
-ien of some who have since died.—G. V 






















































































































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